Kohima, Jan. 2: High school student Viketouzo Elias had charmed an audience with his dancing skills only a few weeks ago.

This morning, he lay wrapped in a funeral shroud at the New Market Colony here, after a bus trip from a Sunday picnic near Rusoma village turned fatal for him and six more passengers.

For Neilaphrieu Angami, it was a double blow on the first day of the New Year. She lost her seven-year-old daughter Khriphriehunuo and 67-year-old mother Rheizetuonuo in the accident.

Four siblings ? two brothers and two sisters ? from the Hetuo family were injured. Truck-owner Soubunhie Rame?s elder son Setuo sustained serious head injuries.

There were around 50 picnickers on the vehicle, a truck, when it tumbled down a 300-feet gorge around 3.30 pm. Four people died on the spot. The casualties included two elderly women and three girls.

Around 150 people from New Market Colony had gone for the annual picnic at a farm near Rusoma village on Sunday morning. The village is about 10 km from Kohima.

On the way back to the capital town, the truck tyres slipped on the loose soil while going uphill. ?It suddenly turned turtle and tumbled into the gorge,? said teenager Dzieevituo Solo, who was among the lucky few who managed to jump out of the vehicle.

Four persons were brought dead to hospital ? two each to Naga Hospital and the Oking Hospital. Three more succumbed to their injuries at night. Most of the survivors sustained chest and head injuries, doctors said.

Villagers from neighbouring Kohima and Rusoma villages and from the BSF camp near the accident site were the first to help the survivors. Police and Assam Rifles personnel reached the spot later and used ropes to pull up the stranded passengers.

There were heart-rending scenes at the funeral of four of the victims ? Rhiezetuonuo, 70-year-old Ashiphro Margaret, Kielebiezo Angami and Viketouzo, who used to be an ace dancer with the moniker Gyrate.

Similar scenes were witnessed at Kohima village, too, where the funeral service for two girls, seven-year-old Khriephrehunuo and five-year-old Medovinuo, was held. ?It is a tragedy beyond words,? said Kohima municipal council member Vizolie Sorhie.

Kohima district superintendent of police Martin Pieny? said 27 people had been admitted to various hospitals, while 21 were discharged after first aid.

On Sunday evening, a large number of people was waiting at Oking Hospital here even as rescue workers rushed injured men, women and children from the spot. While some of them wept aloud, a young boy sat quietly, too shocked by the trauma to speak. The truck driver, Ratan, was brought with a bleeding nose and bruised face on a stretcher.

More than 20 people were admitted to the Naga hospital as well. The district administration has despatched a report to the government seeking ex gratia for the next of kin of those killed, sources said.

Two more persons were killed in another accident near the New Secretariat complex here on New Year?s eve.

In Dimapur, a road mishap claimed a teenager?s life.