The Indian Army’s 87 Mountain Brigade, which was performing routine exercises in the Udhampur Ram Nagar area on Monday, rescued five to seven persons alive from the bus crash site while retrieving more than 20-25 bodies within half an hour of the rescue, a spokesperson said.
Speaking to the media after completing the rescue operation, the spokesperson said “Luckily, they were around the area performing routine mountain exercise when they saw the bus in the gorge. Once spotted, the entire team launched a search and rescue operation to retrieve the dead and alive from the bus.”
He said within half an hour of the rescue operation, the team managed to pull out at least seven people from the debris, along with 20-25 bodies which were inside and around the bus.
The death toll has been confirmed by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who, in a post on X, wrote that around “21 people have been killed in the accident while 61 have been injured", with some stated to be in critical condition.
The accident took place in the early morning when a bus filled with passengers was en route to Udhampur from a remote mountainous village. The driver of the bus reportedly lost control after he was trying to negotiate a blind curve and in the process slipped down the gorge, resulting in the death of multiple people on the spot.
Also read: 19 dead, several critical as bus falls into gorge in Udhampur
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