6 devotees killed, 25 injured in separate incidents in Himachal

Six devotees, including four women, were killed while 25 others were injured in two road accidents in Himachal Pradesh today.

Six persons, including four women, were killed and 10 others injured when the vehicle carrying them fell into a gorge near Neherian village in Una district.

The group of 16 devotees from Batala tehsil in Gurdaspur district of Punjab had come to pay obeisance at the Dera Vadbhag Singh gurdwara, near Una, and the accident took place while they were returning, the police said.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle was overloaded and the accident occurred as the driver lost control of it while avoiding a head-on collision with a truck.

The officers of the district administration rushed to the spot and extracted the bodies with the help of fire brigade personnel.

The injured were rushed to a hospital.

Una district police chief Diwakar Sharma said the bodies of the deceased were sent to the zonal hospital for post-mortem, while the injured were admitted to the hospital.

He added that a case was lodged and a probe was on to ascertain the cause of the accident.

In another incident, 15 devotees, including 14 women, were injured -- eight of them seriously -- when the vehicle in which they had taken a lift veered off the road near Jamal village in the Sarkaghat area of Mandi district.

The injured persons were returning after taking part in a religious ceremony at Chhir village, the police said, adding that they were rushed to the civil hospital in an ambulance.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chandrapal Singh said all the injured persons were out of danger.

Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur expressed shock and grief over the death of the six devotees.