india

Updated: Aug 06, 2019 11:42 IST

At least 14 people, including children, were killed in two separate accidents in the hill state of Uttarakhand, reports said on Tuesday.

Nine school children were killed and eight others injured after their school van plunged into a 70m gorge in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district on Tuesday morning, officials said.

The injured in the accident in Labgaon about 160km away from state capital Dehradun were rushed to the district hospital by officials of the local administration and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).

Officials said all the children who died are between the ages of nine and 13. They were the residents of Kangsali village and students of the same school.

“The incident happened around 7.30am but the SDRF team received the information from the district control room at around 9am after which a team rushed to the spot for search and rescue operation. The local administration and police were already present there and said two of the children had died on the spot,” senior SDRF official Praveen Alok said.

“Two children died on the spot while seven of them later succumbed to injuries in the hospital while undergoing treatment. The eight injured are in serious condition. All the nine deceased were aged 4-13,” he added.

Tehri Garhwal’s district magistrate V Shanmugam refused to confirm the number of the dead.

“All concerned teams are still involved in rescuing the children in this tragic incident and are rushing to nearby district hospital,” Shanmugam said.

“Some of them have been shifted to Baurari main hospital and a decision is being taken to airlift them to AIIMS Rishikesh for further treatment.”

In another incident, five persons were feared dead in Chamoli district of the state after boulders fell on a bus near the Lambagad area of the district on Tuesday morning, informed district officials.

The district disaster management officer informed that 11 people were travelling in the bus, which was passing through the landslide prone area of Lambagad, when boulders from the mountains fell on the bus.