Six tourists die in Mussoorie mishap

Six die as tourist bus falls into gorge near Mussoorie

Bhatta Fall (Uttarakhand): At least six persons, including a child, died after a tourist bus fell into a gorge here in the early hours of Sunday. Thirty-five persons were injured in the incident. The bus, carrying men, women, children and the elderly, was a few kilometres from Mussoorie, when the driver lost control of the vehicle. It tumbled into a steep gorge near a bend on the Ghat (hilly) Road. The bus was chartered from Gujarat and was headed towards the hill resort of Mussorie. A team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel was called in for the rescue effort. A posse of police, doctors and several local residents also rushed to the spot. They managed to rescue the tourists stuck inside the badly damaged bus. Some of the injured were taken to the Bhasuri Civil Hospital , while others were admitted to the Doon Hospital in Dehra Dun . "I heard noises of stones and the bus fell into the valley. My children and husband all fell over me. The roof of the bus was smashed and I was about to fall into the gorge but somehow managed to catch hold of a tree trunk with one hand and my child with the other hand. My body is almost broken," said Sonalben, a woman passenger. According to the police, five people died on the spot while an eight-year-old succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Senior Superintendent of Police of Dehra Dun, Amit Sinha, said that the police are yet to ascertain the exact reason behind the bus falling into the gorge. "The bus slipped near the road bend. There can be some other technical issue also but we haven't come across any other reason behind the accident. The local people and the police helped a lot initially and later on ITBP men did a wonderful job in rescuing many trapped people out of the bus," said Amit Sinha.
-May 24, 2009

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