At least 27 children are among 30 people who have died after a school bus plunged 200ft off the edge of a gorge in India - AFP

SHIMLA, India: At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed yesterday in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said. The bus carrying young students home in Himachal Pradesh state flew off a cliff near Nurpur, about 325 km from the state capital Shimla, and crashed into a valley. "The bus rolled into a 200-feet-deep gorge, killing 27 schoolchildren, two teachers and the driver," a senior local police official, Santosh Patial, told AFP from the scene. Most of the students were aged between 10 and 12 years and hailed from a local school, he added. Twelve have been rushed to hospital, most in a critical condition. Images from the scene showed injured children being carried away bloodied and bruised, some on stretchers and others in the arms of bystanders. - AFP