India: A bus veered off a road and plunged into a river in north-eastern India on Sunday, killing at least 18 people and injuring one more, officials said.
Divers were searching for survivors in the river near the town of Sonapur, said government official Prateek Hazela. Sonapur is about 25 kilometres east of Gauhati, the capital of India’s Assam state. One person, the driver’s assistant, had been rescued and was taken to a local hospital, Hazela said, adding that the toll was not expected to rise.
“The injured (man) has said there were less than 20 passengers in the bus at the time of the accident. We are waiting for the divers to finish their job,’’ Hazela said. Local television channels showed footage of the mangled bus being lifted from the river by crane, with some bodies still inside. Deadly road accidents - common occurrences in India - are often caused by rash driving, old and overloaded vehicles and bad roads.