At least 18 people were killed in eastern India on Tuesday when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims crashed into a truck transporting cooking gas cylinders, according to officials.
Visuals from the site in Jharkhand state showed the mangled wreckage of the bus, with its rear portion almost entirely burnt.
Indian local lawmaker Nishikant Dubey said the pilgrims were travelling to a Hindu shrine to celebrate the sacred month of Shravan, coinciding with the onset of the monsoons in the subcontinent.
"18 devotees lost their lives due to a bus and truck accident," Dubey said on social media.
The pilgrims were carrying holy water from the Ganges to offer to the Hindu god of destruction, Lord Shiva.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his "deepest condolences to the families of the devotees who lost their lives."
"The road accident in Jharkhand's Deoghar is extremely tragic," his office said on social media.
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