A truck carrying pilgrims returning from a Hindu shrine in the Himalayas has veered off a mountain road and plunged into a gorge in northern India, killing 16 people.

Police Superintendent Israr Khan says 16 other passengers were injured in the accident last night in India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

Villagers and police climbed into the gorge to rescue the injured and take them to nearby hospitals.

The men had visited Amarnath Shrine, and had done charity work at a kitchen supplying food for pilgrims.

Each year more than half a million Hindu pilgrims go to the shrine at a mountain cave to worship an icy stalagmite revered by Hindus as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.

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