Sixteen Army jawans were killed and four others injured when their vehicle skidded off the road and fell into a gorge at a remote location in North Sikkim near the India-China border on Friday.
The incident took place at around 8am at Zema 3, about 15 km from Lachen, located at a distance of around 130 km from State capital Gangtok.
Arun Thatal, Chungthang Sub-Divisional Police Officer said that an Army vehicle was heading towards the border posts with 20 occupants. The vehicle seemed to have veered off the road while negotiating a curve in the Zema 3 area and crashed hundreds of feet down.
All 16 bodies have been recovered from the crash site. The condition of the four critically injured Army personnel remains unknown, he said, who was at the spot with a police team from Lachen.
The bodies are being taken to state-run Hospital in Gangtok for post-mortem and will be handed over to the Army. The regiment of the victims is yet to be ascertained, he added.
According to police, the Army vehicle had been picking up the Army personnel on the way as it was heading towards its destination.
