At least 13 people died and 53 others were injured after a bus skidded off a bridge and overturned in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur district, the police said.
The luxury bus was travelling from Gadhwa in Jharkhand to Raipur, state capital of Chhattisgarh. It came off the road near Daldhowa ghat, around 400 km from its destination, at around 10:30 pm on Wednesday.
The driver saw a motorcycle at a sharp bend and swerved to avoid him but lost control of the wheel, causing the bus to come off the bridge and flip over two or three times, local police superintendent Sadanand Kumar told PTI.
“So far there are reports of 13 deaths while 16 critically injured were shifted to Ambikapur district hospital. Besides, 37 other injured have been admitted to local hospital at Balrampur,” the SP added.
The identity of the victims, all of them men, is being ascertained, he added.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh has directed the district administration to provide medical care to the injured.