17 die in Indian truck plunge

A truck crowded with members of India’s ruling political party plunged from a mountain road into a gorge today, killing 17 people and injuring 25 others.

The truck was packed with slogan-shouting members of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

They were returning from an election rally by Shatrughan Sinha, a popular film star-turned federal minister, when the accident took place at Narwa, 43 miles from Simla, capital of the Himachal Pradesh state.

State elections in the mountainous state are due on Wednesday.