Itanagar:
Eight persons were killed on the spot when a pick up van ferrying them skidded off the road and fell into a 800 feet deep gorge in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
All the passengers of the vehicle which met with the accident on Saturday at Bhalukpong-Bomdila road were porters of the Army Special Corps battalion stationed at Tawang.
Police on Sunday extricated the bodies of four persons while eight other passengers had a miraculous escape.
"We have so far extricated four bodies and operation is on to lift the others from the area where the accident occurred," West Kameng SP T T Lama said.
The injured were admitted to Bhalukpong primary health centre on Saturday and were evacuated to Tezpur on Sunday morning, the SP said.
The accident occurred while the driver was negotiating a sharp turn, the SP said.
Two local hunters were the first to spot the victims after hearing the frantic call of the injured driver, sources said.
The SP while returning from the state capital, Itanagar, spotted the driver and learnt about the incident before seeking help of passers-by and alerting the Army, Bhalukpong, Rupa and Bomdila police stations.
SP's Personal Security Officer Naik Passang Dorjee along with drivers of two private vehicles descended into the gorge and located the eight surviving passengers of the total 16, sources said.
An Army medical team with medicines and a nursing assistant rushed to the rocky spot and gave first aid that facilitated carrying the survivors till the road point, the SP said.
"All of them are grievously injured but the chance of their survival is bright because of the rescue or else no one could have heard them as the spot where the van fell was far away from the road," the SP added.