The overcrowded truck lost control while negotiating a narrow bridge and plummeted into the river in Hoshangabad, 80 kilometres (48 miles) from state capital Bhopal, district administrator K.K. Singh said.
"The accident occurred when the truck driver lost control while avoiding a head-on collision with another vehicle on the bridge," Singh said by telephone from Hoshangabad.
The victims were farm workers travelling from the village of Bankhedi to nearby Pipariya town when the crash occurred, he said, adding that 15 of the injured where hospitalised in critical condition.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006