36 dead after bus collides with vehicle carrying mourners in India

(CNN) -- Thirty-six people in northern India are dead and another 28 are injured following a collision between a bus and a vehicle carrying mourners from a funeral, an official news agency reported Sunday, citing local officials.

The crash occurred late Saturday outside Badaun, in Uttar Pradesh state, District Magistrate Amit Gupta told the official Press Trust of India agency.

The state government bus collided with a vehicle, known as a matador, that was transporting people back from a ceremony marking the last rites of a relative, Badaun police Superintendent D.K. Chaudhary said.

The bus driver, Bahm Swaroop, was among those killed, according to Chaudhary.

Thirty-four people were pronounced dead soon after the crash, while five of the 30 hurt were seriously wounded, officials said. Two people died of their injuries early Sunday, according to Gupta.

Details of the accident were not available.

The provincial government has announced that it will give payments of 2 lakhs (about $4,500 in U.S. currency) to the families of those killed, with 50,000 rupees (about $1,100) going to the injured, the Press Trust of India reported.