16 Hindu pilgrims killed in Kashmir bus accident

A truck carrying pilgrims from a Hindu cave shrine in India-administered Kashmir fell into a gorge, killing 16 people in the second accident of its kind this month, police said Friday. The vehicle was returning to New Delhi from the Himalayan shrine of Amarnath when it fell into the gorge late Thursday, police said. The accident took place in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir state, about 75 kilometers east of the state's winter capital, Jammu. More than 40 people were in the bus, and at least 14 were being treated at local hospitals. The cause of the accident was being investigated, the police said. Witnesses quoted by the NDTV network said the driver was drunk. Another bus of pilgrims fell into a gorge in a similar manner July 14, killing 15. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travel every year to the Amarnath shrine, located 4,000 metres above sea level.