PM Modi expresses condolences after 14 people are murdered after a bus slides into a canyon in Uttarakhand’s Champawat.

Fourteen people were murdered and two others were injured after a car plunged down a steep valley on the Sukhidhang-Dandaminar route in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district on Tuesday, police said. The tragedy happened at 10 p.m. on Monday, but the information reached authorities by 3 a.m., and rescue personnel were hurried to the scene, according to an official from the Champawat district disaster management office. Devendra Pincha, Superintendent of Police in Champawat, told PTI that 12 corpses had been retrieved and that attempts were underway to extract the other two from the steep and narrow valley. Five ladies and two children were among those killed. The injured are being treated at various hospitals in Tanakpur and Champawat, according to the SP, who also stated that body recovery is still ongoing at the scene. The pickup vehicle was returning from a wedding in Tanakpur’s Dharamshala to Danda Kaknai hamlet when it was involved in the collision, he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister National Relief Fund to the next of kin of those slain and Rs 50,000 to those injured. Pushkar Singh Dhami, the state’s chief minister, has expressed his condolences. The accident resulted in the loss of life.