By IANS,
Mumbai : At least 23 people were killed and 33 injured as the state transport bus they were travelling in plunged into a 100-foot-deep gorge in the Western Ghats Saturday, the Maharashtra police said.
The driver and the conductor of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) owned bus were among those killed in the accident at around 11 a.m. at a spot about 150 km south of Mumbai in the Ghonse ghat region in Mhasla sub-district.
The Raigad police said that as per preliminary investigations, the driver lost control while negotiating a steep curve and the bus plunged into the gorge.
Villagers in the locality reached the spot, hailed passing vehicles and rushed many of the 33 injured to hospitals in different towns in the area for treatment. Twenty injured victims were brought to the Sion Hospital here, a police official told IANS over telephone.
The bus had left Thane, next to Mumbai, for Diveaghar on a regular passenger service.
The victims have been identified as: Mayuresh Joshi, Ramesh Barge, Irfan Bandekar, Ayesha Bandekar, Kishore Mahadik, Archana Ketkar, Vedant Kulkarni, Meghna Thosar, Mahadev Sutar, Vijay Karkhanis, Sakharam Niphadkar, Omkesh Vebaskar, Arun Kamble, Liyaquat Ulde, Ayesha Ulde, Waman Kathe and bus conductor Balasaheb Narote.
The police are in the process of identifying the other victims, the official said.