(Updates toll, adds new accident)

PATNA, India, May 11 (Reuters) - At least 31 people were killed and several injured in two separate road accidents in eastern India on Friday, officials said.

A bus carrying 38 passengers skidded off a bridge and fell into the Ganges riverbed in the state of Bihar, killing 20 people, an official said. Most of the passengers were asleep when the accident occurred near the state capital, Patna.

"As the bus fell into a dry area of the river, we could manage to save lives but everyone has serious injuries," Virendra Kumar Sinha, a state official, told Reuters.

In neighbouring Orissa, 11 people were killed and four seriously injured when a jeep they were in collided with an oil tanker lorry in Mayurbhanj district.

An official said the death toll could rise as many of those injured were in a serious condition.

(Additional reporting by a Reuters reporter in Bhubaneswar)

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