3 soldiers die as army truck plunges into gorge in Ramban
Ramban senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kulbir Singh said three soldiers died in the accident which took place between Battery Chashma and Monkey Morh on Jammu-Srinagar national highway around noon
At least three soldiers were killed on Sunday as an army truck veered off road and plunged into a 300-metre deep gorge in Ramban district, said officials.
They said the truck was part of a convoy en route from Jammu to Srinagar. Ramban senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kulbir Singh said, “three soldiers have died in the accident which took place between Battery Chashma and Monkey Morh on Jammu-Srinagar national highway around noon.”
He said the deceased soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Sujeet Kumar, Rifleman Manbahadur and driver Amit Kumar.
“Though the exact cause of the accident will be known only after a thorough probe, we found a steering bolt from the site where the truck veered off road. It appears that the bolt fell off and the steering turned free. Subsequently, the driver lost control because of the glitch and the vehicle plunged into the gorge,” he added.
“We have retrieved one of the bodies and efforts are on the retrieve the remaining,” he added. Army’s Northern Command put out a post confirming the incident on microblogging platform X.
Soon after the accident, police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), army and locals launched a rescue operation.
The dead bodies were shifted to Ramban district hospital.
