52 killed in India road crash

International Desk: Fifty two people, including several women and children, were killed, and more than 20 suffered injuries on Tuesday morning when a Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) bus plunged into a gorge on the Kondagattu ghat road in Jagtial district.

The bus, belonging to the Jagtial depot, had more than 60 passengers, who reportedly came to the hillock temple at Kondagattu. It was going from Shanivarampeta village to Jagtial via the Kondagattu ghat road and Muthyampet villages when the accident happened.

More than two dozen passengers died on the spot and bodies of seven children have been recovered.

The bus was overcrowded, eyewitness accounts said.

Initial reports said the bus driver lost control of the vehicle at the third sharp curve, resulting in the bus plunging into the gorge. Most of the passengers lost balance and fell on the right side of the bus leading to the accident. Many due to suffocation as they fell on one another.

Some four-wheelers following the bus stopped and launched a rescue operation with the help of the locals. The severely injured were rushed to the Jagtial Area Hospital for treatment. The condition of close to a dozen passengers was said to be critical and death toll is likely to go up, reports said.

Jagtial Collector A. Sharath, SP Sindhu Sharma and Karimnagar Police Commissioner Kamalhasan Reddy, and other officials reached the spot and shifted the injured to the Jagtial hospital.

The bodies have been shifted to the hospital pending post mortem.

Source: Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/September 11, 2018/A K Azad