According to Chungthang Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Arun Thatal, the Army van was carrying 20 people and was moving toward the border crossings.
Digital Desk: Sixteen Army jawans were killed and four others were injured when their vehicle went off the road and plummeted into a gorge near the India-China border in North Sikkim. The injured have been evacuated to an Army hospital in North Bengal, according to a senior police officer.
The accident took place around 8 a.m. near Zema 3, around 15 kilometres from Lachen, which is roughly 130 kilometres from the state capital Gangtok.
According to Chungthang Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Arun Thatal, the Army van was carrying 20 people and was moving toward the border crossings.
The truck seems to have gone off the road while negotiating a curve in the Zema 3 area, crashing hundreds of feet below.
The crash site has been cleared of all 16 bodies. The condition of the four gravely injured Army men is unknown, according to Thatal, who was on the scene with a Lachen police squad.
The bodies are being transported to the state-run STNM Hospital in Gangtok for post-mortem examination before being handed over to the Army. The victims' regiment is yet to be determined, he added.
As per police, the Army vehicle had been picking up the Army personnel on the way as it was heading towards its destination.
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