Gandhinagar: Seven pilgrims from Gujarat are dead on Gangotri national highway in Uttarkashi as a bus carrying around 33-35 pilgrims fell in a 50-metre-deep gorge near Gangani on the Gangotri highway today. The teams of SDRF and Police rescued 27 persons. Those injured are taken to nearby hospitals.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in a tweet stated – I am saddened by the tragic incident in which the pilgrims from Gujarat lost their lives due to the bus falling into the valley in Uttarakhand. My heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased.

He further added in his tweet – The Gujarat government is in constant touch with the Uttarakhand government regarding the incident. Praying for the speedy recovery of the injured citizens.

The Gujarat government in a note stated: ‘The State Government is in constant touch with the Relief Commissioner, Government of Uttarakhand, for details and information about the deaths and injuries of the tourists from Gujarat who were killed and injured in the tragedy that occurred when a tourist bus fell into a valley in Uttarakhand on Sunday. State Relief Commissioner Shri Alok Pandey has given details about this and said that according to preliminary information, seven Gujarati tourists have died and 27 tourists have been injured. Uttarakhand State SDRF rescue teams have joined the rescue operation and arrangements are being made to take the injured tourists to Rishikesh for further treatment. He has said that the Gujarat government is in touch with the Uttarakhand government to get the details of the tourists who have died. According to the preliminary information received from the relief commissioner of Uttarakhand, the accident took place when these 33 tourists had gone to Uttarakhand by a private travel bus from Bhavnagar and from there they were traveling further by a local private tourist bus.’

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed his condolences over the death of seven people in the accident and wished a speedy recovery for those injured.

“May God grant peace to the departed souls and strength to the bereaved family members to bear this loss. I wish a speedy recovery to all the injured,” he said on X (formerly known as Twitter). DeshGujarat