November 19, 2022: Twelve people, including two women, were killed and three injured as a passenger vehicle fell into a deep gorge in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday.

A Tata Sumo carrying 17 passengers fell into a gorge at Urgam in Joshimath area of the district at around 4 pm. The rescue operation is going on.

The passengers were on their way to Palla Jakhol village from Joshimath when the accident occurred.

Two of the occupants jumped out of the vehicle in the nick of time.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has recovered all the 12 bodies.

The vehicle is said to have been overloaded with some occupants also sitting on its roof.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief at the loss of lives in the accident and announced Rupees 2 lakhs on behalf of those killed.

 Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami spoke to the District Magistrate of Chamoli, Himanshu Khurana, over the phone and asked him to ensure that free medical treatment is provided those  injured.

According to SDRF, those killed in the accident were identified as Dalip Singh Chauhan, Sitab Singh Chauhan, Subodh Singh, Vikram Singh, Kashmira Devi, Lakshman Singh, Tajwar Singh, Rajeshwari, Gajendra Singh, Ranjit Singh and Gabbar Singh and Shiv Singh.

Most of those killed were from Kimana, Kalkot, Dumak and Palla villages.

The injured included Ajit Yadav from Allahabad, Rohit Prajapati from Hapur and Mahavir Singh.

Hemant Chauhan and Jeetpal escaped unhurt.