Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, Sept 11: Eight tourists including a foreigner were killed while seven others injured grievously when the tempo-traveller in which they were travelling, plunged into a gorge on Leh-Manali Road in Pang region of Leh.
According to the reports, the mishap occurred late last night at Tagnangla on Leh-Manali Road when the driver of the tempo traveler bearing registration number HP01K-6667 lost control over steering while overtaking another vehicle.
As per the reports, the tourists of another vehicle informed the concerned police about the accident and acting swiftly a police team immediately reached the spot and started rescue operation.
According to SSP Leh, Tsering Gyalpo, seven tourists were killed on the spot while seven others including the driver of the ill fated vehicle received grievous injuries.
He said due to darkness, the police officials faced various hardships in rescue operation but with the help of Indian Army’s Medical Emergency team of Artillery Brigade, all the dead bodies as well as survivors were retrieved from the gorge in a long operation which continued till this morning.
According to DC Leh, Prasanna Ramaswamy, as soon as they got information about the mishap, ambulances were rushed to the spot to shift patients to hospital. He said that four tourists were critically injured and they could succumb any time to their injuries.
“Therefore, realizing the situation, I immediately talked to Principal Secretary to PM, on phone and after getting a go ahead from him the injured tourists were airlifted to Soam Norboo Memorial (SNM) Hospital, Leh, but one of them lost his life on mid-air”, the DC said.
Out of the eight tourists who lost life in the accident, the seven have been identified as Fur Temba of Sikkim, Kiran of Darjeeling (West Bengal), Uday Prasad Koraila of Nepal, Sonam Bhutia of Sikkim, Pawan of Darjeeling and Jairo Alberto Torres (45) of Colombia while one is still unidentified. All the dead bodies have been shifted to SNM Hospital, Leh.
Those injured in the mishap and being treated at SNM Hospital are Krishna Kumar (21) son of Dharmpal Yogi, resident of Rajasthan, Daman Rai (32) son of Bakhta Bahadur, resident of Darjeeling, Dhaval Bhai Patel (24) son of Dhiru Bhai Patel, resident of Vadodara (Gujarat), Sita Karki (25) wife of Deepak Karki, resident of Nepal, Anil Pradhan (26) son of Dhurba Pradhan, resident of Sikkim, Puran Rai (18) son of Yogesh, resident of Darjeeling and driver of the ill fated vehicle namely Jaswant Singh (39) son of Sher Singh, resident of Rewalsar, Mandi (Himachal Pradesh).
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