At least 53 killed as bus veers off Kashmir road

Rescuers pulled 53 bodies from the wreckage of a crowded bus that veered off a steep mountain road in Indian-controlled Kashmir today.

The bus was negotiating a steep curve near the town of Sainganji when it swerved off the road and fell 400 feet into a gorge, said JB Singh, a local police superintendent.

Sainganji is around 120 miles north-west of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state.

Villagers and police were helping to pull survivors from the wreckage of the bus, which had about 70 people on board, Singh said.