Six killed, 40 injured in India bus plunge

New Delhi: An Indian news report says a bus overtaking another vehicle at high speed as they crossed a bridge in eastern India crashed through the railings and fell nearly 9 metres onto a railroad track, leaving at least six people dead.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Sanghamitra Ghosh, a district magistrate, as saying that another 40 passengers were injured, 12 of them seriously, in the incident in Howrah in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state.

The bus driver lost control as he tried to maneouvre the vehicle around another, and the bus smashed through the bridge railings and plummeted to the ground, witness Atanu told the CNN-IBN television channel. Atanu uses one name.

Ghosh said local residents helped police pull passengers from the mangled vehicle.