AKIPRESS.COM - At least 44 people have been killed in northern India after an overcrowded bus crashed into a gorge in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand today, Daily Mail reported.

Deepesh Chandra Kala, a disaster management officer from Pauri Garhwal district where the accident occurred, told AFP: 'Forty-four people have died in the accident.

'At least 3 others are injured. The rescue work is still ongoing.'

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand state Trivendra Rawat said the bus skidded and fell into a 700-foot deep gorge.

Rawat said about a dozen others are injured.