In Pics | 10 Vaishno Devi pilgrims killed, 57 injured as bus falls off bridge in Jammu

Ten Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims were killed and 57 others injured on Tuesday as their bus skidded off the road and rammed into the railing of a bridge before falling off it.

The officials said the bus, which was on its way to Katra from Amritsar, met with the accident in the Jhajjar Kotli area on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

Local residents, CRPF and police personnel rushed to the spot and launched the rescue operation. "The troops of 137 CRPF battalion carried out the rescue operation to evacuate injured driver and passengers from bus, which turned turtle and fell down from Jhajjar Kotli bridge on the highway," the force said in a tweet.

The fifty-seven injured have been admitted to the GMC hospital in Jammu and two of them are critical. "Two persons were brought dead in the hospital while others have died on the spot," said Soodan, the principal.

They said most of the travellers were from Bihar's Lakhisarai and were on a pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi for a religious function of their child. They were members of an extended family.

President Droupadi Murmu said the death of pilgrims in a bus accident in Jammu was extremely unfortunate and offered her deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.