Fifty five people, including 23 women and eight children, were injured in the accident (Representational)
Ten passengers from Punjab were killed after a private bus they were travelling in skid off the road and fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district on Thursday, police said.
All of them were from Amritsar.
Fifty five people, including 23 women and eight children, were injured in the accident. They have been admitted to hospitals in Dehra and Tanda towns," Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Gandhi told IANS.
More than 80 passengers were on their way to the Jwalamukhi when the bus met with an accident near Dhaliara town, 65 km from district headquarter Dharamsala.
The passengers, mostly traders, earlier paid obeisance at the Chintpurni temple in the hill state.
Eyewitnesses said the bus was overcrowded and the driver probably lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a steep gradient.
The administration had a tough time extracting the victims from the bus, though locals started rescue work before the authorities could reach the spot.
Relatives of passengers mourned the loss of lives of their loved ones. "Shiv Kumar was travelling with his family. He died in the accident while his family members received grievous injuries," said a relative of Mr Kumar.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Governor Acharya Devvrat expressed grief over the accident.