Report by Vijyender Sharma; Dharmshala: At least nine devotees, mostly from Kanpur city of Uttar Pradesh, were killed and 42 others injured when the private bus in which they were travelling rolled down a deep gorge in in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, police said Sunday. They are returned from Amarnath in Jammu and Kashmir, and were on a visit to famous hindu shrine of Jawalamukhi.

The bus rolled into a 250-metre-deep gorge on the outskirts of Kangra town, near here, around 10 p.m. Saturday, SP Kangra Daljeet singh told over phone.

The dead were six men and two women and one body was not identified yet. They were identified as  Parmesh Tewari,Rajender Singh,Sonu,Rakesh Yadav, Chandan and Sarvesh , Smt. Kupma Devi,Rama Kumari and one body was not identified yet.

The injured were admitted to Rajendra Prasad Medical College and Hospital in Tanda, near Kangra town.

"They were travelling from Chamunda Devi temple to Jwalaji temple," SP Kangra said, adding that the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained. Both prominent Hindu shrines are located in Kangra district.It took hours for rescuers and police to climb down the mountain and bring up the bodies. Even the heavy rainfall in the region hampered the rescue operation, police officials said.