At least three Army personnel were killed after their vehicle skidded off the road and plunged into a 200-300 metres deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district on Sunday.
As per a report by PTI, the army truck was part of a convoy moving from Jammu to Srinagar along national highway 44 at the time of the accident near Battery Chashma.
Following the accident, a joint rescue operation was launched by the army, police, SDRF and local volunteers. However, the three soldiers, travelling in the vehicle, were found dead on-the-spot.
The deceased have been identified as sepoys Amit Kumar, Sujeet Kumar and Man Bahadur and their bodies are being retrieved from the gorge.
Ramban Superintendent of Police Kulbir Singh said that the unfortunate incident occurred when the driver of an army vehicle - which was part of a convoy - lost control of the vehicle and rolled down into a gorge which was about 500 metres deep. "Three people were in the vehicle. Unfortunately, all three of them died." ANI quoted Singh.
He added that preliminary investigation suggests that a mechanical failure cause the accident. "When we inspected the spot, we found a nutbolt there, which could probably have come from the steering wheels. So, I think the driver lost control of the steering wheel due to that nutbolt. This seems to be prima facie the cause of the accident," SSP Singh told ANI.
