Shimla, India: At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed on Monday in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said.
The bus carrying young students in Himachal Pradesh state flew off a cliff near Nurpur, about 325 kilometres (200 miles) from the state capital Shimla, and crashed into a valley.
"The bus rolled into a 200 feet-deep (60 metre) gorge, killing 27 schoolchildren, two teachers and the driver," a senior local police official, Santosh Patialma, told AFP from the scene.
Most of the students aboard were aged between 10 and 12 years and hailed from a local school, he added. Twelve had been rushed to hospital, most in a critical condition.
Onlookers rushed to search the mangled yellow bus upturned on the valley slope for survivors.
Images from the scene showed injured children being carried away bloodied and bruised, some on stretchers and others in the arms of bystanders.
The state government has announced 500,000 rupees ($7,700) in compensation for each victim's family.