Bengaluru: At least 30 passengers, including nine school children and 13 women, were killed when a speeding private bus in which they were travelling plunged into a canal in Karnataka’s Mandya district on Saturday, officials said.
The bus, which was moving on a road along the VC canal at Kanaganamaradi, 105 km south of Bengaluru, swerved and toppled into it, completely submerging in water and killing the victims instantaneously, officials said.
Wails of grief-stricken kin of the victims rent the air as rescue teams fished out the bodies one after the other. Thirty bodies have been recovered, the police said, adding that the fate of the driver and conductor was not known. Preliminary reports suggested that negligence on the part of the driver who has been booked, officials said.
Girish, a carpenter who was rescued, said he survived as he was sitting next to a window and could swim safety. “I’m not sure what caused the accident, but it looks like it was the driver’s fault. Fifteen people from my village and some of my relatives died,” he said. Girish reportedly helped a school boy, Rohit, escape from the submerged bus.
Local residents said most of those killed were from nearby Vadesamudra village and the children among the victims were returning home after half-day at school.
Chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who rushed to the accident spot, cancelling all his official engagements, announced a compensation of '5 lakh each to the kin of those killed.
President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and state Opposition leader B.S. Yeddyurappa expressed grief over the loss of lives.
“Deeply pained by the bus accident in Karnataka’s Mandya. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased. May God give them strength in this hour of sadness: PM @narendramodi,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet.
Congress president, in a tweet, said, “I’m sorry to hear about the terrible bus accident in Mandya district of Karnataka, in which over 30 people are feared dead & many others injured. I extend my deepestcondolences to the families of the deceased & pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.”
