100 killed as truck falls into gorge in Rajasthan

ACCIDENT SITE: Senior government officials from Jaipur have rushed to the accident spot.

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Udaipur: At least 100 people died when a truck fell into a gorge near Desuri Ki Naal village, some 150 km from Udaipur, in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan on Friday evening.

The 16-wheeler truck was carrying around 200 pilgrims to a satsang (prayer meeting) at the shrine of sufi saint Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district when it fell off a hill road on the Aravali range.

Rajsamund district Superintendent of Police Rupinder Singh told PTI he suspects the driver lost control and smashed through a protective wall on a hill road.

As many as 70 bodies have been pulled out of the gorge but have not been identified. Local authorities pressed into service cranes and searchlights to retrieve the bodies and rescue the injured, Singh said adding medical teams are attending to the wounded. Identification of some of the dead had become extremely difficult because their bodies were dismembered and only limbs

Shekhar Agarwal, the Collector of Udaipur district, said he was on a private visit to Rajsamund and saw the “devastated” truck. “I was in a private vehicle and saw the truck in a completely devastated condition. With the help of people passing we started pulling out accident victims and took them to hospitals nearby,” said Agarwal.

Rajiv Dasod, Inspector General of Police, Udaipur range, said the Ramdevra temple is a famous pilgrimage centre and the area around it rugged it has serpentine roads.

Dasod said senior police and civil officials have reached the accident site and doctors and relief workers are reaching from Pali and Jaipur.

The Rajasthan government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the next of the kin of the deceased, an official spokesman said in Jaipur.