DEHRADUN (India), July 31: At least 36 Hindu pilgrims from Nepal were killed on Thursday when their bus plunged into a river in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, officials said.

The passenger bus carrying 40 people spun out of control and fell 100 feet into the rain-swollen Alaknanda river in Chamoli, district administrator D.S. Garbiyal said.

“Four survived the crash and have been hospitalised in very serious condition,” Garbiyal told on telephone from Chamoli, 300 kilometres north of state capital Dehradun.

Police said 20 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the bus, which was stuck among boulders in the fast-flowing river.—AFP