A bus plunged into a gorge in a Himalayan state of northern India on Thursday, killing 14 people and injuring 17 others, a disaster official said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle as he tried to negotiate a narrow bend in the picturesque Tehri district.

“Thirty-one people had boarded the bus. Rescue workers have pulled out 14 bodies. Seventeen others are injured, nine of them have serious injuries,” disaster official Piyush Rautela said.

Those nine have been flown by helicopter to a hospital in the nearby city of Rishikesh, he told AFP.

India has some of the world’s deadliest roads, claiming the lives of more than 150,000 people each year.

Earlier this month, 44 people were killed in Uttarakhand when a bus crashed into a gorge.

AFP