Berhampur: Eight passengers died and over 40 were injured, four of them seriously, when a private bus fell off a bridge at Palakhola on Taptapani ghat road in Odisha’s Ganjam district in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The accident took place when the bus carrying more than 50 passengers was on the way to Berhampur from Tiriki in Rayagada district.
Following the incident, police and fire brigade rushed to the spot and admitted 37 injured to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Digapahandi and 14 more, including three women, were taken to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur.
Among the injured, five were declared brought dead by the doctors at Digapahandi, while Fire Service personnel retrieved two bodies from the mangled remains of the bus.
Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Ganjam, Bijay Panigrahi said that emergency treatment of the injured passengers is on at the Digapahandi CHC.
As informed by the MKCG superintendent Santosh Mishra, the condition of four passengers admitted to the hospital is critical.
Talking to mediapersons, Chief Fire Officer Sukanta Sethi said four fire tenders from Mohana, Sanakhemundi, Digapahandi and Berhampur are engaged in the rescue operations. Trapped passengers are being pulled out of the overturned bus by cutting the glass grills with the help of gas cutters in the presence of the Deputy Fire Officer.
Stating that 40 injured passengers have been sent to the hospital, he said the rescue operations will be completed after the bus is lifted back to the road with the help of a crane. “While seven passengers have died, the number is most likely to go up,” he pointed out.
Some injured passengers told the media that the mishap took place between 3.30 am and 4 am.
DIG, southern range, Satyabrata Bhoi said the rescue work is going on in full swing in presence of the Ganjam SP and SDPO.
A passenger told the media that while the bus was moving on ghat road the driver suddenly informed that the brakes had failed. “Before we could know what happened, the bus fell off the ghat road,” he added.
TMeanwhile, the eight dead passengers have been identified. They are Bidyut Nayak of JK Pur area in Rayagada district, Jhunu Behera of Putabagada in Chhatrapur block in Ganjam district, Karishma Nayak (18) of Kabisuryanagar in Ganjam district, L Ramesh of Purushottampur in Ganjam district, Sanghamitra Mohapatra and her daughter Anwesha (12) of Rayagada town, Sunil Nayak of Berhampur and Subasini Maharana of Digapahandi in Ganjam district.
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