On Monday, a school bus carrying students aged between 5 to 11 years of age veered off a mountain road in Kangra Valley and tumbled into a deep gorge in the Himalayan foothills, killing at least 27 people and 23 children.

According to the local officials, the death toll may rise as they consider the the school bus accident to be the worst in recent years. The children were students from Wazir Ram Singh Pathania Memorial School in Himachal Pradesh.

The officials from Kangra described the horrific scene they witnessed just moments after the crash. The crash site was about 300 miles north of New Delhi.

Villagers were the first to respond by rushing to the scene as soon as they heard the bus smash into the rocky gorge, local officials told the news agencies. The villagers had to carry the deceased children bodies in their arms.

“We had to cut open the body of the bus to pull out the victims and survivors,” Santosh Patial, Kangra’s police chief, told a newspaper.

A student aged about 10 whose name is Ranveer Singh, was thrown through a window.

“I heard a loud bang and bus starting rolling down the hill. Just then the window near my seat broke and I and a girl sitting by my side fell out,” he said.

A local politician told the news agencies that about 12 children were in the hospital with one of them in critical condition.

An investigation has been ordered to know the cause of the accident.

The grandmother of four children who died due to the crash was upset over the tragedy and said “All I have left are photographs of them now,” she said.

In India, bus accidents are very common, especially in the hills. The main reason cited is the poor infrastructure, deep potholes and a lack of guardrails.

In a similar instance in early 2017, not less than 15 children were killed and 45 others were also injured

after their school bus collided with a truck in Uttar Pradesh.

According 2013 data from the World Health Organisation, India is considered to have the deadliest roads in the world for having more than 200,000 traffic fatalities each year. The Supreme Court commented over the issue by saying that India’s roads are “giant killers”. According to the experts, many people accused in those accidents go scot-free because of the weakness of motor vehicle regulations, routine corruption, lagging investigations and slow court trials.

The bus which crashed had left the school campus at around 3 pm Monday. It travelled for around four miles when the driver, Madan Lal lost control over the bus. The bus fell at least 200 feet before its ill-fated crash.

The local officials said that they are still investigating the case.

“I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet. “My prayers and solidarity with those who lost their near and dear ones in the accident.”

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