More than 30 people were feared killed as a bus skidded off road and fell into a 500-feet-deep gorge Monday evening in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, local media reported Tuesday.

The 42-seat bus, ferrying passengers from Palampur to Asha Puri, a village known for a hilltop shrine, was overcrowded.

A joint rescue operation by police and the army is underway, said Indo-Asian News Service.