At least 80-100 pilgrims, including women and children, were killed in an accident happened in Rajashthan on Friday night. According to the report, a truck, carrying more than 200 people, fell off a hill road in the gorge located on the Aravali range near Desuri Ki Naal village. The village is located some 150 km from Udaipur in Rajsamand district, Rajasthan.

More than 200 pilgrims were going to a prayer meeting at the shrine of sufi saint Ramdevra in Jaisalmer district by the 16-wheeler truck. The driver of the over-packed truck suddenly lost control and the truck fell off a hill road on the Aravali range.

According to Rupinder Singh, SP, Rajsamund said that the accident happened because the driver failed to control the truck. The truck smashed through a protective wall on a hill road and fell off in gorge.

Till the final report, the district administration had recovered at least 70 bodies from the gorge. All the bodies were unidentified. Just after the accident, the local administration swung into action and sent service cranes and searchlights to retrieve the bodies and rescued the injured. The district administration also sent medical teams for attending the injured people.

People were facing problems in identifying some dead bodies because the bodies were badly dismembered. Shekhar Agarwal, the Collector of Udaipur district was on a private visit to Rajsamund district.

He said:

I saw the truck in a devastated condition. We, and some local people present at the site, immediately started pulling out accident victims from the gorge and sent them nearby hospitals for treatment.

Rajiv Dasod, IG Police, Udaipur range, said that senior police and civil officials arrived at the site within hours with all medical facilities. More doctors and relief workers were about to arrive here from Pali and Jaipur.

The Rajasthan government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the next of the kin of the deceased, an official spokesman said in Jaipur.

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