Shimla, Aug 11 (IANS): Six people, including five police personnel, were killed and five others injured on Friday when the vehicle in which they were travelling skidded off the road and fell into the Siul River in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh.

Nine police personnel from IInd IRB from Sakoh near Dharamsala were going to join duty in Tissa, located on the border of Chamba and Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.

They were travelling in a private chartered vehicle.

Deputy Commissioner Apporv Devgan told the media that the rescue operation is underway.

An NDRF team has reached the site and was trying to flush out bodies from the river.

Eyewitnesses said rescuers had a tough time extricating the victims from the badly-mangled vehicle.

Expressing grief over the accident near Tarwai bridge, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu directed authorities to provide an ex-gratia grant to the next of kin of the deceased.

Chamba is one of remotest places in the state and scarcity and low frequency of passenger buses in the district leads to overcrowding of the vehicles.