At least 13 people died and 41 were injured on Tuesday when a crowded bus swerved and plunged off a mountain road into a deep gorge in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, police said.
"The bus was overloaded with people seated on the roof of the vehicle, the driver apparently lost control and the bus went rolling into a 350-feet (106-metre) deep gorge," said Chamel Singh, a magistrate in the Kullu district where the accident happened.
"Many of the injured are school children," Singh said, adding that many of the survivors leapt from the bus top ... as it rolled down the slope.
"The bodies of thirteen people have been retrieved, 41 others are injured, six of them seriously," Singh told AFP by phone from the accident site at Talara, about 225 kilometres (141 miles) from Shimla, former summer home of the British-era colonial viceroy.
Road accidents are frequent in India and are often blamed on overcrowding, reckless driving and poorly-maintained vehicles.