Eight people, mostly women, were killed when a jeep they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Kerala's Wayanad district on Friday, the police said.
They said there were at least 12 people in the jeep when it met with an accident around 3:30 pm on the state's Valad-Mananthavady road.
"The jeep was on its way to Makkimala with women who work at a private tea estate," a local said.
The victims were rushed to a hospital, where eight died, the police said.
"At least two people are critical," a senior police official told news agency PTI.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed Forest Minister AK Saseendran, who was in Kozhikode, to rush to the accident site.
He gave directions to coordinate all measures including the treatment of the injured and take care of other necessary things, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office said.
Featured Video Of The Day
Red Alert Issued For Kerala's Wayanad Amid Heavy Rain Forecast Video: Foreigner Claims She Was Denied Entry Into Kerala Temple, Congress' Karti Chidambaram Reacts Freedom Of Press May Not Include Sting Operations In All Cases: Kerala High Court Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor: The Culprit Behind World's Biggest IT Outage UPSC Cracks Down, Says Puja Khedkar Faked Identity, Parents' Name, Address Microsoft Outage "Affecting IT Operations" Paris Olympics Organisers Biden Or Trump, It's Still A Long Wait For Indian 'Dreamers' In US ISRO Chief Gets His PhD From IIT-Madras: "A Village Boy's Dream Fulfilled" Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.