Thirty-three people were killed on Saturday after a bus fell into a 500-feet deep gorge along the Mumbai-Goa highway in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, PTI reported. Only one passenger, who was thrown out from a window of the bus, was saved in the accident.

The accident took place near Poladpur around 11.30 am when the bus was on its way to Mahabaleshwar. The driver is believed to have lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn. The passengers were employees of Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, an agricultural university in Ratnagiri district, the Hindustan Times reported.

“All the passengers were travelling and chitchatting with each other while crossing the ghat section,” Prakash Sawant-Desai, the lone survivor in the accident, told The Times of India. “The driver turned back to give response to a joke of one of the passengers for a second and before we could understand anything, the bus fell into the gorge. I was thrown outside the bus.”

Teams from National Disaster Management Authority, along with local rescue teams, were at the spot.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Congress President Rahul Gandhi condoled the death of 33 people. “Administration taking all efforts to provide required assistance,” Fadnavis said in a tweet. “Senior officials [and] emergency management systems in place.”

The state government announced an ex gratia compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of those who were killed, ANI reported.

Gandhi appealed to Congress party workers in the area to provide assistance to the injured and the families of those who lost their lives.