Search resumes for 4 missing as India bus plunge kills 20

NEW DELHI – Rescuers on Wednesday found another three bodies as they resumed searching for people missing after a bus plunged into a river in mountainous northern India, killing at least 20 Hindu pilgrims.

Police officer Mahadev Uniyal said that rescuers recovered 19 bodies and one person died in a hospital. Six people who were injured in Tuesday’s crash were still hospitalized.

The search had been halted late Tuesday but resumed in the morning. Four people were still unaccounted for, said Ashish Chauhan, a National Disaster Response Force official.

The bus plunged around 150 metres (380 feet) into a river in Uttarakhand state, 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of New Delhi. The cause of the accident wasn’t known.

Uttarakhand is a popular summer vacation destination for tourists seeking to escape the torrid heat of India’s plains. It is also a religious pilgrimage site with four temple towns in the Garhwal Himalayan range.

More than 110,000 people are killed annually on India’s roads. Most crashes are attributed to reckless driving, poorly maintained roads or aging vehicles.