52, including 4 children, die as bus falls into valley in Telangana

Hyderabad: At least 52 people were killed and more than 34 others injured when a state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) bus fell off a ghat road of a hill into a gorge in Telangana’s Jagtial district on Tuesday.

Among those dead, 4 were children, 32 women and 15 men.

The Jagtial depot bus had 60 passengers and was proceeding from Shanivarapet village to Jagtial via Kondagattu ghat road and Muthyampet villages when it fell into the valley resulting in the accident.

More than two dozen passengers died on the spot.

While villagers quickly took up rescue works, Jagtial collector Sharath and superintendent of police Sindhu Sharma rushed to the spot along with police forces.

The injured were shifted to a government-run hospital in Jagtial. Those critically injured were shifted to hospitals in Karimnagar and Hyderabad.

The bodies have been shifted to Jagtial Area Hospital pending postmortem.

"The incident happened between 11.45 am and noon. At least 15 people have died in the mishap...20 others were injured and they have been shifted to different hospitals," Jagtial District Collector A Sharat, who is supervising the relief and rescue work, told PTI over phone.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao expressed shock over the accident and conveyed his condolences. He directed officials to provide immediate medical assistance to those injured.

Chandrashekhar Rao announced Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia to the family members of the deceased in the bus accident.