<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>At least 30 people were killed in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous road and plunged into a deep gorge, police said.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The accident took place on a remote road in the Doda area, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) southeast of the region’s capital Srinagar.</div><div><br></div><div>“Thirty passengers have died in the accident, caused by the driver’s negligence by hitting the crash bar of the road,” senior police officer Sunil Gupta told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>“The bus tumbled down the mountain some 250 metres (800 feet),” he said, adding that more than 25 people were also injured in the crash.</div><div><br></div><div>A video clip from the site showed a grisly scene of several dead bodies, as rescuers tried to help the injured.</div><div><br></div><div>Police said they feared the death toll could rise, with many badly hurt.</div><div><br></div><div>Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the accident was “distressing” and offered his “condolences to the families who have lost their near and dear ones”.</div><div><br></div><div>“I pray that the injured recover at the earliest,” he said on social media, adding that government compensation of more than $2,400 would be offered to the next of kin of those killed, and $600 to those injured.</div><div><br></div><div>‘Anguished’</div><div>Home Minister Amit Shah said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was “deeply anguished to learn about the loss of precious lives”.</div><div><br></div><div>“The local administration is conducting the rescue operation in the gorge where the bus had the accident,” Shah added.</div><div><br></div><div>Accidents are common on India’s vast network of roads, which are often poorly maintained.</div><div><br></div><div>The country accounts for 11 per cent of the global road death toll, despite having just one percent of the world’s vehicles, according to a World Bank report released in 2021.</div><div><br></div><div>The same report estimated 150,000 car crash fatalities in India annually — or one every four minutes — causing road crashes that cost the Indian economy around $75 billion each year, the report added.</div><div><br></div><div>Medical expenses and loss of income push many accident survivors into poverty.</div><div><br></div><div>In May, at least 21 people died when a bus veered off a bridge in India, reportedly after the driver fell asleep at the wheel.</div><div><br></div><div>In July, 25 people were killed and eight others injured in western India when a bus crashed and caught fire on an expressway. According to AFP reports&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>