A 55-year-old woman was today killed and 30 pilgrims injured when a bus they were travelling in plunged into a valley in the deep forest area of Maredumilli in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, police said.
The mishap occurred in Rampachodavaram division of the district around 5 AM. The bus carrying 35 devotees from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh was returning after a pilgrimage to a Rama temple at Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Maredumilli police station Sub-inspector D Ramesh Babu said.
The victims were proceeding to take a holy dip in Pushkar ghat of Godavari here when the mishap occurred.
When the bus reached Tiger Camp in Maredumilli forest area, the driver of the vehicle tried to negotiate a narrow curve and lost control over it, after which it fell into the valley, the sub-inspector said.
He said 30 injured have been rushed to Rampachodavaram government hospital.
The body has been sent for postmortem while four others escaped unhurt, he added.
Being a thick forest area, rescue teams took time to reach the spot and begin work, police said.
(REOP CAL2)
The death toll is likely to mount as the condition of
some of the injured persons is stated to be critical, officials said adding while 14 persons died on the spot, the rest succumbed to injuries during treatment at hospital.
The DGP said steps were being taken to ensure survival of the injured persons.
While some injured persons were being shifted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack, some others were taken to the district headquarters hospital at Angul.
Soon after getting information about the mishap, police and fire brigade rushed to the spot and carried out rescue operation.
The bus was badly damaged in the accident as it fell from a height of about 40 feet, police said.
