At least 20 people were killed and 36 others injured when a passenger bus rolled into a gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Monday, turning a routine hill route into a deadly crash scene. The bus was travelling from Ramnagar to Udhampur when it lost control near Kanote village, and rescue teams moved quickly to the site as local authorities began trying to pull survivors and bodies from the wreckage.
Officials quoted by Hindustan Times said the bus took a sharp curve on a hilly road before sliding down a steep rocky slope of roughly 100 feet and landing on a lower road. The impact did not end there. The bus also struck an auto-rickshaw below, leaving more people injured and adding another layer of damage to an already chaotic scene. Police said the exact sequence of events was still being examined, and investigators were looking at how the crash unfolded on the road above the gorge.
The crash prompted a swift response from senior officials in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi. Union minister Jitendra Singh said he had spoken with Udhampur Deputy Commissioner Minga Sherpa soon after learning of the accident and that rescue work had been launched immediately. He said all possible assistance was being arranged, including efforts to move the seriously injured by air for faster medical treatment if needed. The source report also said the Prime Minister's Office promised ex gratia payments from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the families of those killed and for injured passengers.
Local officials described the response as an active rescue and recovery operation rather than a closed incident. Government Medical College Udhampur said injured passengers were being brought in for treatment while teams continued working at the site to recover bodies and stabilize survivors. Dr Sanjeev Gupta, the medical superintendent of the college and associated hospitals, said those operations were still underway as doctors and emergency staff prepared for more arrivals from the crash scene.
The political reaction mirrored the scale of the accident. Manoj Sinha, the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, called the crash heartbreaking and said district administration teams, police, SDRF personnel and the health department had been told to provide every possible assistance. The chief minister also expressed grief and extended condolences to the families of the dead. The accident has again drawn attention to the risks of mountain transport in the region, where a single loss of control on a narrow road can rapidly become a mass-casualty emergency.
