Date:20/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/20/stories/2004072003091200.htm

National

36 killed as bus falls into ditch

By Our Special Correspondent

`OPERATION PULL-OUT': Work is on to extricate the bus that capsized near Lakhmipur in Malda district of West Bengal on Monday. Thirtysix persons were killed and many injured as the vehicle fell into a ditch. — Photo: Bhaskar Ray

KOLKATA, JULY 19. At least 36 persons, including four women and a child, were killed when a private bus in which they were travelling skidded off a rain-drenched State highway, overturned and fell into a seven-feet deep road-side ditch at Lakhmipur, five km from Malda in north Bengal this morning. Nine persons were injured, five of them seriously.

One of the injured is being shifted to a hospital in Kolkata.

The ditch into which the bus fell was filled with rainwater that had accumulated over the past few days.

Despite the pouring rain, residents of Lakhmipur village rushed to the site, waded through muddy waters and rescued some of the passengers by smashing the windowpanes of the bus, eye-witnesses told the police.

They were rushed to the Malda district hospital in ambulances that had reached the spot along with the local fire brigade. The villagers also brought out the bodies of the victims through the broken windows.

The vehicle was pulled out of the ditch after a nearly five-hour struggle. Traffic on the highway was suspended for most of the day.

The ill-fated bus was on its way to Chanchan from Malda. There were about 50 passengers on board.

The police are investigating whether a brake-failure caused the accident. The driver fled from the spot.

Another accident

In another incident in West Bengal, one person was killed and several others were injured when a bus in which they were travelling overturned at Nimtori, in east Midnapore district. Twenty-three persons have been admitted to the Tamluk district hospital, according to police.

The bus was bound for Howrah from Shankarpur.