Eight persons died and one was injured when a jeep fell off the road into a 450 feet deep gorge near Chamba, Tehri police station area on Wednesday.
Chamba Police Station in-charge PC Mathpal said that nine persons of the village Silogi went to Chopriyal for celebrating Holi.
They boarded a Tata Sumo jeep to return to their village. The vehicle driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a sharp bend on the road causing the vehicle to fall off the road into 450 feet deep gorge near Chaukhal, eight km away from Chamba police station.
According to Mathpal, policemen were sent to the accident site after the mishap. Seven persons died on the spot whereas two persons who were seriously injured were admitted in Chamba primary health centre. When their condition started deteriorating, both were shifted to Doon Hospital where one of them is said to have died. The mishap took place at Chaukhal around 5.30 pm. The bodies recovered by police have been identified as Buddhi Mistri, Uday Singh, Rakesh, Ram Singh, Amal Singh, lok Bahadur and Satendra. The injured were identified as Chunnu and Hikmat Singh.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.
Governor Aziz Qureshi and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna have expressed grief at the death of people in the mishap. The Governor and Chief Minister have prayed for strength to the families of the accident victims and also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.