Ruptly
"At least 21 people were killed and 51 injured on Monday when an overcrowded passenger bus plunged nearly 100 metres down a hillside in the Udhampur district of India-administered Jammu and Kashmir region. Officials say the tragedy was the result of a collision with an auto-rickshaw which saw the bus land upside down on a lower section of a winding mountain road. Footage shows the wrecked bus with debris scattered across the road. Passengers' belongings are seen on the ground, with police present at the site. "It is with great sadness that I have to say that the health department of Ramnagar is unwell and unfit in itself. When our people contacted them, their ambulance reached here after 40 minutes. If it had arrived earlier, we could have saved many more lives, because several people died in front of us," claimed eyewitness Sunil Kumar. "I personally recovered and placed nineteen dead bodies there, and after that, it’s possible that another twenty to twenty-five people have also died," he added. According to Kumar, the bus collided with an auto-rickshaw, however the driver managed to keep the auto-rickshaw on the road, saving his life. Local media reported that more than 65 passengers, including women and students, were on board, largely daily commuters travelling from Ramnagar to Udhampur. India's President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their condolences for the loss of life, with Modi announcing payments of 200,000 INR for the families of the deceased and 50,000 INR for the injured. Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah assured all possible assistance would be made available, with 200,000 INR compensation for the next of kin of the deceased, 100,000 INR for the seriously injured and 25,000 INR for those with minor injuries."
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