Jammu: At least 40 school children were feared dead when a bus they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge in Rajouri district of Jammu region on Thursday, the state police said.

The accident took place when the driver of the Gareeb Nawaz Academy school-bus with 45 persons on board lost control of the vehicle at Mansar.

The bus was taking the children on a picnic from Manjakot to Peer Ki Gali on the Mughal Road that connects Rajouri with Shopian district in the Kashmir Valley.

‘Forty children are feared dead in this tragic accident. Police and army teams have reached the spot and a massive rescue operation is on,’ a senior police official said.

‘Chances of survival of the occupants are bleak as the vehicle fell 150 feet into a deep gorge,’ the official said.