Nine people were killed on Friday when a van carrying a tourist group from Malappuram district in Kerala plunged off a hairpin bend on the mountain road at Valparai (a hill station in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, southern India). The vehicle fell the equivalent of four hairpin bends on the steep ghat road, which features 40 such sharp curves in total, with the accident occurring between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. local time. Seven women and a 12-year-old boy were among the dead, while the three surviving members of the 12-person group were hospitalised, with the most critically injured transferred to a specialist facility in Coimbatore city.