94 Dead In India Bus Tragedy

The death toll from the crash of an overcrowded bus in southern India rose to 94 Tuesday as rescuers pulled the mangled hulk of the vehicle out of a lake.

Authorities say the dead include 45 men, 34 women and 15 children. The driver of the bus was among the survivors. Twenty-five other people were injured in Monday's accident in the Davanagere district of the southern India state of Karnataka, says police official Gopal Hosur.

The privately owned bus, overloaded with more than 100 passengers, was en route from Davanagere, 155 miles from the state's capital Bangalore, to nearby Malebennur when the accident took place around 5.30 p.m. local time Monday. The region is 960 miles south of India's capital, New Delhi.

The bodies were fished from the water through the night with the help of police divers and other relief workers.

Hosur says the cause of the accident has not yet been confirmed although some survivors say one of the tires of the bus blew out, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. Regardless of the cause Hosur charges will be filed, "We will take action against the driver and the owners of the bus for overloading it."