At least 35 killed as bus falls into canal in central India
New Delhi, Feb 16 (efe-epa).- At least 35 were killed, seven were injured while many others remained missing on Tuesday after a bus fell into a canal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
The accident took place around 7.30 am in the town of Rampur Naikin when the bus veered off the road and fell into a canal full of water, local police station in-charge Ashok Pandey told EFE.
“The reason behind the accident is still unknown,” Pandey said, confirming that 35 bodies had been taken out from the canal so far, while seven people had been rescued alive and shifted to a nearby hospital.
All the survivors “are fine, nobody is seriously injured,” the officer said, adding that the number of people who remain missing was not certain but “there shouldn’t be many.”
“The bus has been spotted and it is being taken out with the help of a crane,” he said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan expressed his condolences to the victims in a tweet and announced compensation worth 500,000 rupees ($6,900) for the families of the deceased.
Road accidents in India are frequent due to poor road conditions, poor conditions of several vehicles and lack of respect for traffic regulations.
In the last major accident, on Monday at least 16 people were killed and two were injured after a truck carrying daily wage workers and their families overturned on a highway in western India.
In 2019, a total of 151,113 people lost their lives and more than 451,000 were injured in some 449,000 road accidents in India, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. EFE-EPA
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