A bus carrying more than 40 passengers veered off a mountain road in north India and fell into a river on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, the IANS news agency reported.

The bus was rounding a curve when the driver apparently lost control and the vehicle plummeted 400 feet into the Chenab River in India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The bodies of 15 people have been recovered by police and army teams," a local policeman told the agency, adding that only four passengers had so far been discovered alive.

Poor road conditions, ageing vehicles and reckless driving are the leading causes of road deaths in the country. Last month, a school bus veered off a bridge into a canal near Vadodara in western India, killing at least 44 people.