Jammu, Sep 20 (IANS): A soldier was killed and five others injured in a road accident in J&K’s Kathua district on Friday, officials said.

"The vehicle carrying army personnel went out of the driver’s control and skidded off the road after which it dropped into a gorge at Sukrala Mata Ashram road. One soldier died in this accident while 5 others were injured," an official said.

The injured personnel were shifted to Billawar sub-district hospital, where doctors referred them to the army hospital in Pathankot town of neighbouring Punjab. They were airlifted to Pathankot in a helicopter.

"The soldier killed in this accident has been identified as Sepoy Ram Kishore while the injured soldiers were identified as Sepoys Bhupinder Singh, Mahipal Singh, Anil Singh, Sunder Pandya and Lokinder Singh.

Police has taken cognisance of the incident, officials said.

Over 4,000 highly trained soldiers drawn from the elite Para Commandos and those trained in mountain warfare have been deployed to man densely forested areas in Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, and Udhampur districts of the Jammu Division after reports came in that a group of hardcore foreign mercenaries are operating in the mountainous areas of these districts. There have been a number of encounters in Kathua, Poonch, Kishtwar, and Udhampur in recent days, while at least two infiltration attempts were foiled in Rajouri.