At least 15 people, including a child and six women, were killed and 24 injured on Friday when a private bus rammed into a tree in Punjab's Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, police said.
A total of 56 passengers were travelling in the bus which met with the accident at Behram village on the Phagwara-Banga road at around 11 a.m. The bus was on its way from Nawanshahr to Jalandhar.
Prima facie, it appeared that the accident occurred after the driver lost control over the vehicle, a police official told IANS.
The bodies were retrieved from the mangled remains of the bus after cutting through its roof, a witness said.
Expressing grief over the incident, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal directed the district administration to take all possible measures to rescue the survivors and provide them adequate relief.
State Congress chief Pratap Singh Bajwa demanded a compensation of Rs.500,000 to the next of kin of the dead and Rs.200,000 for the injured.
