In a tragic incident, 13 passengers, including two women, were killed and 14 others sustained injuries in a road accident in Almora on Tuesday. The bus (UK-04-PA-0016), in which the passengers were travelling in, fell into a 200 metre deep gorge at Kholidhar Totam.
Local people launched rescue operation soon after the incident. The local administration joined the operation after one and half hours.
It is suspected that the accident was caused due to speeding. Till filing of the report search and rescue operation was underway.
The injured were rushed to the Ramnagar combined hospital, from where the seriously injured were shifted to hospitals with better facilities for advanced medical care.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has expressed grief over the accident. The Chief Minister interacted with Nainital and Almora district magistrate asked them to speed up search and rescue operation. Local police, revenue department and a team of doctors were send to the accident site.
The bus started from Deghat and was heading for Ramnagar with 27 passengers on board. The mishap took place at around 8.15 a.m. Local people called for the ambulance service, but the 108 service ambulance reached almost one hour after the accident.