Cliffhanger! Miraculous escape for passengers as bus hangs from edge of hill road

Over 30 passengers had a great escape when a bus skidded off a slippery, icy hill road and teetered precariously over a steep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Monday, police said.

Locals helped rescue the passengers from the bus, which was wedged between two concrete parapets on the winding road.

In a scene that could be straight out of a film, half the vehicle was hanging over the gorge at Gatsu village on the Batote-Kishtwar highway in Jammu region, Bhadarwah Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rajinder Singh said.

The bus was on its way to Jammu town from Padder area of Kishtwar district when the accident took place in the morning, Singh said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle due to frost on the road in the sub-zero temperatures, the ASP said, citing preliminary investigation reports.

The officer advised drivers to manoeuvre carefully as most of the roads in the district remain frozen during winter and become slippery.

In a separate accident in Kathua district, a person named Mohammad Abdullah Sheikh died and five people were injured in a head-on collision between a car and another vehicle near Gund Thather village in Banihal in the morning, a police officer said.

In another incident, Arun Raina was found dead inside his car, which was pulled out from a canal near Sawan Chak. The vehicle apparently fell into the canal on Sunday night and was noticed by some persons who informed the police, the officer said.