2 dead, 10 missing as pilgrim vehicle plunges into Alaknanda river in Uttarakhand

Seven people, including three women and two children, were injured in the accident while ten others went missing

Rudraprayag: At least two people were killed, eight injured and ten others were reported missing when a vehicle carrying pilgrims fell into the Alaknanda river here on Thursday, police said.

The vehicle – a tempo traveller – met with the accident near the Gholthir village on the Badrinath National Highway between Rudraprayag and Gauchar, they said. Relief and rescue teams have reached the spot.

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Two bodies have been recovered, one near the accident site and the other from the river near Rudraprayag, Satyendra Singh Bhandari, a member of the Red Cross Society rescue team said.

Seven people, including three women and two children, were injured in the accident while ten others went missing, he said, adding that the injured have been hospitalised. There were 20 people, including the driver, on board the vehicle when it fell into the river, Bhandari added.

The tempo traveller is said to have been going towards the Badrinath Dham when the accident occurred at around 7.30 am, he said quoting the injured. The pilgrims had come on Uttarakhand’s Char Dham Yatra from Udaipur in Rajasthan.