At least 41 people were killed when a passenger bus plunged into a gorge on Saturday in a mountainous region of north India, an official said.

The bus skidded off the road in a sparsely populated, hilly area of the state of Himachal Pradesh, district deputy commissioner Sunil Chaudhary told AFP.

“So far, we have confirmed 41 dead and 17 injured in the accident in which the bus fell into a gorge that was 250 feet (76 metres) deep,” Chaudhary said.

The accident occurred near Chamba district, a mountainous region some 191 kilometres (119 miles) from state capital Shimla.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to a 2009 World Health Organization report, with accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads.

Three days earlier, 31 people were killed when a passenger bus tumbled into a gorge in Meghalaya state in India’s remote northeast with police saying the bus driver appeared to have been driving recklessly in rainy weather. Agencies