The death toll in Tuesday's bus accident in southern Indian state of Telangana has risen to 57, officials said.
The accident took place near Shanivarapet village of Jagtial district, about 176 km north of Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana.
According to officials, the bus belonging to Telangana State Road Transport Corporation with 80 passengers on board, skidded off a mountainous road and fell into a gorge at around 11:45 a.m. (local time).
"The death toll in today's tragic accident has now risen to 57 and the dead include children and women," B Rajesham, joint collector Jagtial told Xinhua over telephone. "The injured are undergoing treatment at different hospitals."
Reports said some of the injured were shifted to hospitals in Karimnagar and Hyderabad.
According to Rajesham, the ill-fated bus was returning from Kondagattu to Jagtial town.
Kondagattu hills are famous for Anjaneya Swamy Temple where Hindu devotees throng on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Officials said the victims were pilgrims who had visited the temple and were on way back home.
Following the accident, locals informed police, who along with disaster response force personnel and medical teams, rushed to the spot to carry out rescue work of moving the injured to hospitals and retrieving bodies from the gorge.
Officials said the cause of the accident was negligent driving on part of bus driver.
"No sooner we got the information we rushed to the spot to carry out rescue work. Over two dozen passengers had died on spot," Rajesham said. "Preliminary investigations reveal the bus was being driven negligently and that became the reason for the mishap."
However, later on some of them died while being taken to medical facilities and others succumbed inside the hospitals.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has expressed grief over the accident and announced financial assistance of 6,877 U.S. dollars for each family that lost member in the accident.
The local government has rushed senior ministers to the district to oversee treatment to injured at the hospitals.
Meanwhile, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed shock and anguish over loss of lives in the deadly accident in Telangana.