One student died and 43 others, including 40 students, were injured on Sunday when a tourist bus they were travelling in fell around 100 feet down from the road into a cardamom plantation in Adimaly area of this high-range district in Kerala.

The incident occurred between 1.30 AM and 2 AM when the bus was on its way from Kodaikanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu, where the students had gone for a trip on December 29, an officer of Vellathooval police station said.

"They were students of a Regional ITI in Tirur (in Malappuram district of the state) and were going back to the institution," he said.

Local residents, rescue personnel and police were able to safely remove the injured from the bus and take them to the nearest taluk hospital, but the body of the 20-year old who died in the accident could not be recovered till around 6 AM as it was trapped under the vehicle, the officer said.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, but the road was a narrow one and the mishap occurred as the bus was coming around a bend, police said.

The health of those injured is not serious presently according to information received from the hospital, police said.

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