At least 39 people died and 17 others were injured after a passenger bus veered off a mountain road and rolled 300 feet down a hill onto another road in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

The private bus — with 56 people, including the driver, on board — left Kishtwar around 8.20am for the five-hour and 200km long journey to Jammu, but around 11.50am, the driver of the bus lost control in Doda district’s Assar area, said the police.

The accident occurred at Trungal in Assar on National Highway 244 (NH244) that connects Khanabal in Anantnag district to Batote in Ramban.

“Prima facie, overspeeding and negligent driving appear to be the reason behind the accident. However, a thorough probe will make things clearer. There was a sharp bend on the highway (NH244), but the road was in good condition and the bend had a double protection in the form of a parapet and crash barriers. The bus dislodged them and rolled down the hill,” said Doda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Abdul Qayoom.

Initially, 33 bodies were pulled out of the mangled metal heap of the bus at the foot of the gorge. “The dead are being identified. They largely belonged to Kishtwar and Doda district,” said Qayoom. The driver was reported to be among the dead, he added.

At least four critically injured people were airlifted to a government medical college and hospital in Jammu. However, two of them died en route taking the death toll to 38, said Qayoom. Another person died at the hospital in Jammu later on Wednesday.

The 17 remaining passengers have been hospitalised at a government medical college and hospital in Doda.

“My condolences to the families who have lost their near and dear ones. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X (formerly Twitter).

Local residents said they were among the first responders. “There was chaos all over at the accident site and we first thought that there are no survivors… Those injured are in critical condition and in a state of trauma,” said Manzoor Ahmed, a local resident.

The Prime Minister’s Office said an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh from the PM’s national relief fund (PMNRF) would be given to the next of kin of each deceased and ₹50,000 to the injured.

J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said he was pained by the loss of lives. “My heartfelt condolences to bereaved families & wishing for a speedy recovery of those injured in the accident,” he wrote on X.

Union home minister Amit Shah also expressed his grief over the incident. “Deeply anguished to learn about the loss of precious lives due to a tragic bus accident at Doda, Jammu and Kashmir. The local administration is conducting the rescue operation in the gorge where the bus had the accident. My heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured,” Shah said on X.

“We have been helping the administration in rescue operations, but it was a gory site for us. Four-to-five children were alive in the bus, and we pulled them out,” said Mukhtiar Ahmed, a volunteer of Al-Care NGO, who was among the rescuers.

Rescuers initially saw around 28 bodies at the spot and shifted them to the hospital in rescue vans, Ahmed said, calling for a trauma hospital and critical care ambulances in the Assar area.

Umar, another rescuer, who goes by one name, said, “We saw marks of tyres on the road where the bus went down the hill, indicating the driver had applied the brakes, but in vain.”

“It was a bend but the road, being NH244, was wide enough for two vehicles to pass easily. It seems the driver was over-speeding,” said Umar.

Kishtwar SSP, Khalil Poswal said the bus had left Kishtwar bus stand around 8.20am and at 9.30am it was captured in CCTV footage at Drabshall checkpost.

“However, after three hours of its departure from Kishtwar bus stand, the bus met with an accident at Trungal,” he added.

At least 616 people have been killed in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir this year so far. The highest number of deaths were reported from Jammu (134), Doda (59) and Kathua districts (58).

Last year, 805 people died and 8,372 were injured in road accidents across the Union Territory.