NEW DELHI, Nov 25: Fifty-nine people were killed and more than 30 went missing on Friday after two packed passenger buses skidded off flooded bridges in southern India.

Heavy rains have been battering the state of Tamil Nadu for the last two days, disrupting rail and road travel, and causing officials to evacuate several villages.

A bus carrying more than 100 people skidded off a bridge and overturned into a river near the town of Pattukottai, 270kms south of Chennai.

“Out of 100, 42 people have already expired,” said an official at the town’s administrative headquarters.

“Twenty-seven people are alive, fire services and others are searching for the remaining,” he added.

Seventeen people were killed in another accident in the south of Tamil Nadu when a bus carrying 62 passengers skidded off a bridge into a river in Ramanathapuram district.

“Seventeen bodies have been taken out and 42 of the passengers have been rescued,” a spokesman from Ramanathapuram police department said. Three people were missing, he said.

The passengers were travelling to a temple town on the inter-city bus, the official said, adding the river was high due to unseasonal rains lashing parts of Tamil Nadu.—AFP