India: Lorry driver plunge leaves 40 dead

Forty farm labourers died after the lorry carrying them home from work plunged into a river, police in northern India said today.

A police spokesman said 35 people were killed in the accident last night and five others died in hospital.

At least 80 people were believed to have been crammed into the back of the lorry when the driver lost control, sending the vehicle into the river near the village of Ghoomsa, some 80 miles south of Patna, the capital of India’s Bihar state.