Shimla, June 21: At least 13 kindergarten students were injured on Thursday when their school bus skidded off the road and fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, police said.

The students, belonging to a private school in Sarkaghat area, were returning home from school when the driver lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn near Garli.

Five critically injured children were admitted to the Zonal hospital in Mandi, some 150 km from the state capital.

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Ambikapur (PTI): Two tribal girls were raped allegedly by six persons, including three juveniles, in a village in Chhattisgarh's Surguja district, a police official said on Thursday.

Three accused have been arrested and three minors were detained in connection with the incident that took place on the night of April 24 under Sitapur police station limits, he informed.

"The motorcycle-borne accused intercepted the victims when they, along with two other friends, were returning home on foot after attending a wedding. Two of the girls managed to escape. The two victims, one aged 15 years and another 13 years, were forced onto a motorcycle, taken to a secluded place and sexually assaulted," he said.

One of the victims returned home the same night and informed her family the next day, following which a case was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at Sitapur police station on April 26 for gangrape and other offences, he said.

Medical examinations of the victims were conducted at the Sitapur Community Health Centre on April 26 and 27, the official said.

"Initial medical reports did not confirm sexual assault. However, after the victims' families expressed dissatisfaction with the findings, the girls were sent for fresh medical examination at the district hospital in Ambikapur. Based on this medical report, all six accused were taken into custody by April 30," he said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Anand Bek (27), Vikas Tigga (24) and Manish Khalkho (18), all residents of the Sitapur area. The three juveniles, two of them aged 17 years, have been detained, he said.