Eight folks have been killed when a bus carrying over 75 pilgrims from Amritsar in Punjab to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu & Kashmir’s Katra veered off a bridge and fell right into a gorge at Jhajjar Kotli, round 35 km from Jammu, on Tuesday morning.

“Eight pilgrims have died and over 50 injured,” stated Ajat Manhas, an area police officer.

A second police officer stated that rescuers have been instantly rushed to the scene and rushed the injured to Jammu’s Government Medical College and Hospital and a major well being centre in Jhajjar Kotli.

One of the pilgrims on the bus stated that he all of a sudden felt a jolt earlier than the bus fell off the bridge into the gorge. He added that no less than eight to 10 have died.

Another pilgrim stated he was sleeping when the bus all of a sudden went down. “There was chaos all around…”

Vivek, an area resident, stated that he noticed the bus happening round 5.30am. “…I saw this bus being driven at a high speed on a curve. It appears that either the driver lost control or the brakes failed. I along with a few other locals immediately went down into the gorge and after some time police and CRPF officials reached the spot.”

This is the second such accident within the space since May 21 when a pilgrim died, and 23 others have been wounded in Katra’s Moori.