JHARKHAND: At least 18 Hindu pilgrims were killed on Tuesday when the bus they were traveling in collided with a truck carrying cooking gas cylinders in eastern India, officials said.

The crash occurred in Jharkhand state, and visuals from the scene showed the bus wreckage with its rear section almost entirely burnt.

Local Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey stated that the pilgrims were on their way to a Hindu shrine to observe the sacred month of Shrawan, which coincides with the onset of the monsoon across the subcontinent.

“Eighteen devotees lost their lives in the bus-truck accident,” Dubey wrote on social media. The pilgrims were carrying holy water from the Ganges to offer to Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed “deep condolences to the families of the deceased devotees.”

His office posted on social media, “The road accident in Deoghar, Jharkhand is extremely tragic.”

According to official data, tens of thousands die in road accidents annually in India.

In 2023, more than 172,000 people lost their lives in such incidents, Indian Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told Parliament.

In a similar incident last November, at least 36 people died and many others were injured when a bus plunged into a deep Himalayan gorge in the northern state of Uttarakhand.