The packed bus, carrying more than 50 people, skidded off the road and into the gorge before daybreak, in a sparsely populated area of the Indian state of Meghalaya, local police official M.K. Dkhar told AFP.[break]
"Thirty-one bodies have been retrieved," Dkhar said, adding that 27 others had been injured.
Preliminary investigations suggested the bus driver, who was among the dead, had been driving recklessly in rainy weather, he added.
India has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to a 2009 World Health Organization report, with accidents caused by speeding, careless driving and poor roads.
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