SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir 

At least 10 people were killed and more than 40 were injured when a bus they were traveling in skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The passengers were traveling to a Hindu cave shrine in Jammu’s Katra area when the accident occurred near the Jajjar Kotli area.

The chief secretary of the region, Arun Kumar Mehta, visited the injured who are being treated at Jammu Medical College hospital.

“Rescue operation is almost completed. A team from the State Disaster Response Force is also on the spot,” senior police official Chandan Kohli told the media.

A total of 805 people died and 8,372 others were injured in 6,092 road accidents in the Jammu and Kashmir region in 2022, according to traffic police data for 10 years from 2010 to 2022, released in March.

During the first four months of this year, 254 people were killed and more than 2,300 others were injured in 1812 accidents, the majority of which occurred in the Jammu region, the data shows.

Jammu, which was the winter capital of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, accounted for the highest number (551) of fatalities and injuries (6,585) between 2018 and 2022. In comparison, Srinagar, the erstwhile summer capital, reported 229 accident deaths and 1,776 injuries during the same period.

The high number of accidents in Jammu has been attributed to poor road conditions, drunk and rash driving, and overloading.