New Delhi  - At least 18 people were killed when a bus they were travelling in fell into a ditch in India's northern mountainous state of Uttarakhand on Wednesday, a news agency reported.

Police said 12 people were injured in the accident in the remote Pithoragarh district, 260 kilometres east of the state capital Dehradun, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said in its report.

The injured were moved to hospitals where the condition of three of them was stated to be critical. Meanwhile the police began investigations into how the crash occurred.

More than 95,000 people are killed in road crashes in India annually, among the highest total in the world.

Apart from Uttarakhand, similar accidents are often reported from India's mountainous states of Jammu and Kahsmir and Himachal Pradesh. (dpa)