Eyewitnesses said rescue operations were hindered due to the badly-mangled bus
Six children and the driver of their school bus died this morning when the vehicle fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district, news agency PTI reported, quoting officials.
The bus was transporting the children to the DAV Public School in the district's Sangrah town, when it skidded off the road. Sirmaur district is around 150 km from the state capital Shimla.
Around 12 children were injured and have been hospitalised. A police official said the condition of some of them is critical.
Eyewitnesses said the rescue officials were facing difficulties in pulling out the bodies from the badly-mangled bus, according to news agency IANS.
Police said it appears the accident happened due to the negligence of the bus driver, identified as Ram Swaroop, 40. The incident occurred at around 8 am.
The children who died on the spot were identified as Samir, 5, Adarsh, 7 and Kartik, 14. Abhishek, his sister Sanjana and Naitik Chauhan died after they were rushed to hospital.
Ten of the 12 injured children were identified as Sandhaya, Rakshita, Anjali, Rajiv, Aayush, Vaishnavi, Dhruv, Mannat, Aarushi and Sunder Singh, according to news agency PTI.
(With Inputs From PTI And IANS)