Three officials died and one more was critically injured when their vehicle skidded off a road and plunged into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Monday, police said.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha expressed grief over the accident and directed the district administration to provide all possible assistance to the injured.
The vehicle was carrying a team of the Roads and Building department when it met with the accident near Assar on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway around 10.45 am, local Station House Officer Bhuvinder Kotwal said.
He said the vehicle rolled down 200 metres into the gorge, resulting in the death of Executive Engineer Rafiq Shah of Poonch, Assistant Executive Engineering Kamal Kishore Sharma of Udhampur and driver Mohd Hafeez of Doda.
Superintending Engineer Suresh Kumar was critically injured in the accident and was shifted to a hospital, the SHO said.
He said a preliminary investigation suggested that the accident occurred due to low visibility because of foggy conditions and heavy rainfall.
"Pained by the loss of lives due to an accident in Doda. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Directed the district administration to provide all possible assistance," Mr Sinha wrote on Twitter.
Block Medical Officer (BMO), Assar, Dr Tanveer Ahmad said the injured official is being referred to Government Medical College hospital Jammu for specialised treatment.
"Kumar was brought to the hospital along with three bodies. The postmortem of the victims is underway and the bodies will be handed over to their families for last rites after completion of the necessary formalities," he said.
The BMO said Mr Kumar's condition is stable but he would be referred to GMC hospital Jammu for a further checkup as the CT scan facility is not available here while the road leading to GMC Doda is blocked due to a landslide.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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