Shimla:
15 Amarnath pilgrims were killed on Saturday and 18 others were injured as the bus they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge near Kangra tunnel, 22-Km from Dharamsala.
"The accident occurred last evening when the private bus with 40 pilgrims on board, was returning to Delhi from Amarnath Yatra in south Kashmir Himalayas," Additional DGP S RMardi said.
Most of the victims were from the national capital and Uttar Pradesh.
Seven of those injured are serious, he said. Unconfirmed reports say that the death toll could be more as all the bodies have not yet been recovered and some of the passengers were still feared trapped in the wreckage of the bus.
A rescue team led by Deputy Commissioner KR Bharti and SP Daljeet Singh was on the spot and to oversee efforts for recovery of bodies.
Rescue work was hampered as the spot where the bus fell was a deep gorge and inaccessible.
The injured have been rushed to Government Medical College Hospital at Tanda (Kangra) and efforts are on to identify the dead.