Four people are dead and two more are missing after an SUV carrying seven passengers plunged into the raging Bhagirathi river near Gangnani in Uttarkashi district on Thursday, November 5, 2026. Rescue crews are still searching the water for the two missing passengers, and the rescue operation has been running into the night.

The vehicle went off the Gangotri National Highway, according to police, and dropped into the river. A photo caption accompanying the scene identifies the vehicle as an Innova, though the report itself refers to it as an SUV. The passengers were reportedly from Gujarat and were travelling to the Gangotri temple when the accident happened.

Four bodies pulled from the riverbank

Teams recovered four bodies from the riverbank. The response involved local police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and emergency medical services, all working at the site where the vehicle went into the water.

The dead have been identified as Ashokben Patel, 49, Rutika Ashokbhai Patel, 19, and Ghanshyambhai Sarwaliya, 32, all from Gujarat. The driver, Surendra Singh, is a resident of Haridwar. Four families now face a loss that arrived on a highway most people associate with a pilgrimage route.

Each name in the list carries its own weight. Ashokben Patel was 49. Rutika Ashokbhai Patel was only 19. Ghanshyambhai Sarwaliya was 32. Surendra Singh, the man behind the wheel, came from Haridwar, which means he was far from home on a mountain road in Uttarkashi.

Two still missing in fast water

Two passengers remain unaccounted for. They are Sudaben Ashokbhai Patel, 45, and Kiranben Vishalbhai Patel, 34. Their whereabouts are unknown, and the search continues along a river that was running high and fast when the SUV went in.

For the families waiting on the riverbank and back home in Gujarat, every hour without news is its own kind of agony. Searchers have not yet found either woman, and officials have not said when the operation will wind down.

A 17-year-old pulled out unconscious

Among the survivors is Vedant Ashokbhai Patel, 17. Rescuers found him in an unconscious state. He was first taken to the Primary Health Centre in Bhatwari, and was then referred to a higher medical facility for further treatment.

He shares a surname with several of the dead and missing. The report does not say how he is currently doing, and no update on his condition has been released in the material available.

What the district administration is saying

District Magistrate Prashant Arya said medical teams had been placed on alert while the search for the missing passengers went on. He also confirmed that investigators are looking into how the crash happened.

The circumstances leading to the accident are also being investigated.

That line, delivered as the search continued, leaves the central question open. Police have said the vehicle went out of control before it plunged into the river. They have not yet explained why it lost control, and the report does not offer a cause.

The questions still hanging over the Gangotri highway

Three things remain unresolved. The first is why the vehicle went out of control on the Gangotri National Highway. The second is whether the two missing passengers can be found alive, and the third is the condition of the teenager who was taken for treatment after being pulled from the water.

Each of these questions depends on the same operation. Divers, SDRF personnel and police are working the river while medical staff stand by. The district magistrate’s office has said that medical teams remain on alert, which signals that officials expect the search to continue for some time.

The circumstances of the crash will come under scrutiny as investigators piece together the sequence of events. Until they do, the official account stops at the moment the SUV went out of control and entered the river.

A pilgrimage that ended in the river

The group was travelling to the Gangotri temple, one of the most visited Himalayan shrines in Uttarakhand. Reports describe a family-linked group from Gujarat, sharing a journey that was supposed to end at a place of worship. Instead, the trip ended in fast water a short distance from where rescuers now work.

The sight of rescue teams carrying a body from the river is the kind of image that stays with people long after the report is filed. It also underlines how quickly a routine journey on a mountain highway can turn into an emergency.

The accident has now left four people dead and two unaccounted for, with a teenager in hospital care. Those numbers may change as the search continues. For now, the facts are clear: an SUV carrying seven people went into the Bhagirathi, and only one of them has been rescued alive and conscious enough to be transported for treatment.