Twelve Sabarimala pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, including 10 women, were killed and 40 injured when their bus fell into a gorge near Erumeli in Kottayam district of Kerala [INDIA] on Tuesday morning.
The bus, carrying 60 pilgrims from the West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, fell into a 50-foot gorge while negotiating a curve down the narrow Pampa valley road, linking Erumeli with the Sabarimala’s base camp Pampa.
The pilgrims were going to the hill shrine of Sabarimala, which opened for four-day poojas for the Malayalam month Kumbham. They had planned to worship in the shrine on Tuesday afternoon and return home, as the temple is to be closed on Tuesday evening.
The accident spot is located in a thinly populated area cutting through the forest. The local people extricated most of the bodies from the bus and helped out the injured before the police and the fire service personnel reached the spot with rescue tools.
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