BAMROLI (India), April 16: Forty-four schoolchildren and three adults were killed when a bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a canal in western India on Wednesday, police said.

The bodies have been recovered, but some children were still missing, said R.K. Patel, a senior police officer in Gujarat state.

Four children were rescued.

The accident occurred in Vadodara, about 90km southwest of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main city.The public bus was carrying more than 60 children and some passengers from three villages in the region, officials added.

They said the driver lost control after one of the tyres burst and ploughed through a concrete railing on the bridge plunging the bus into the canal.

The driver of the bus, an assistant and a woman were among the dead, police said.

Angry villagers said many children could have been saved if rescue operations started in time.

“For two hours I could see bodies floating in the canal, but nobody came to help us and all we could do was cry and scream for help,” said Rambhai Thakore, a villager from Bamroli, which lost 15 girls in the accident.—Reuters