Shimla, Sep 21 (IANS): Ten people, including four women and two children, died when a private vehicle fell into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul-Spiti district, an official said Saturday.

The victims, from Kishtwar area in Jammu and Kashmir, were on a pilgrimage.

The accident occurred Friday night on the Tandi-Killar road in Udaipur sub-division, 70 km from the district headquarters Keylong, deputy commissioner Bir Singh Thakur told IANS over phone.

He said people came to know about the accident only Saturday morning because it happened in a remote area.

The victims were returning in a Tata Sumo to their native places after paying obeisance at a Lord Shiva temple in Trilokinath, 53 km from Keylong.

An 11th passenger, a child who was injured, has been admitted to a hospital in Keylong, 325 km from the state capital Shimla.

Most victims died on the spot. The cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained, Thakur added.

People living in the area later said the bad condition of the road was probably the reason for the vehicle skidding off the road.

Rescue workers faced a tough time in extricating the injured and the bodies from the wreckage of the vehicle.

With poor frequency of buses and scarce transport options in Lahaul-Spiti, private vehicles are often dangerously overcrowded.