Three dead, 12 injured as vehicle falls into gorge in J&K

Three persons were killed and 12 others injured, eight of them seriously, when the vehicle in which they were travelling skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Wednesday, police said.

The vehicle was on its way to Banihal Railway station from Jammu when the accident took place at around 5 pm, they said.

The driver lost control of the van and it fell about 80-feet below in Kunfer Nallah near Chanderkote in Ramban district, a police officer said.

Some locals, police and Army immediately reached the scene of the accident and pulled out bodies of three persons from the ill-fated vehicle.

Twelve persons, including six from Bihar, two from Rajashthan and another from Haryana, were rescued in an injured condition and taken to the district hospital Ramban, the officer said.

Eight of the seriously injured persons were later referred to Government Medical College hospital in Jammu for specialised treatment, he added.

Two of the deceased were identified as driver of the vehicle Mohammad Khalil (18) of Pogal Paristan village of Banihal and Sunjay Kumar (30) of Haryana, the officer said adding that the identity of the third deceased is being ascertained.