20 dead in Indian tourist bus disaster

More than 20 tourists died, 13 of them children, when their sightseeing bus overturned on a steep bend in the Himalayan foothills.

The bus was one of eight hired to take Indians on a picnic in Mussoorie, a tourist town about 20 miles from the Uttarakhand state capital, Dehradun.

It was taking 52 people back home when it flipped over and rolled down a gorge, landing upside down. Only 30 survived.

Using ropes and a ladder to climb down into the gorge, local villagers and government rescue officials worked for hours to bring the injured and the dead back up to the road.

The driver, who initially fled the scene, was arrested. A survivor said that several passengers had asked him to slow down before the accident.

Road accidents are common in India, which has the world’s highest annual road death toll, according to the World Health Organisation.

More than 110,000 people die each year across the country in traffic accidents caused by speeding, bad roads, overcrowding and poor vehicle maintenance.