A UP State Road Transport Corporation bus filled with passengers broke the railing of a bridge and overturned into the ditch near Laukhwa village on the Tulsipur National Highway in Balrampur district.

Two passengers, including 22-year-old Dilip Prajapati, son of Santosh Kumar of Aurhwa village in Pachperwa, died in the accident while 18 people, including bus driver Santosh Kumar Saini, conductor Suraj and a Nepalese passenger, were injured.

The injured were admitted to the District Memorial Hospital and Tulsipur community health centre. Santosh has been referred to Bahraich medical college hospital as his condition is critical.

Reports said that a bus (UP47T-2648) of Balrampur Depot left for Badhni from Kaiserbagh in Lucknow at around 11 pm on Thursday. After dropping the passengers at Balrampur at around 5 am, the bus left for Badhni. There were 36 passengers in the bus at that time.

The bus went out of control near Laukhwa village on Tulsipur National Highway and overturned into a ditch after breaking the railing of the bridge. The screams of the passengers reached the nearby villagers and within no time a crowd of villagers gathered at the spot and started rescuing the trapped passengers. Police and ambulance also reached the spot.

With the help of villagers, the injured trapped in the bus were rescued and taken to the hospital. The bus driver and conductor, including 30-year-old Mohammad Khan, 37-year-old Krishna Kumar of Bhojpur Sentry, and others were admitted to the District Memorial Hospital as their condition was critical. On the other hand, some injured were taken to the community health centre in Tulsipur. They included 18-year-old Veeru of Gungkhola in Dong Nepal, 28-year-old Ramsagar of Kushwa village in Kapilvastu Badhni, 30-year-old Radheshyam of the same area, 20-year-old Lakshmi of Madiyaon in Lucknow, 40-year-old Chinakna of Bhagiya village in Gaura Chauraha, 28-year-old Umar and 18-year-old Durgesh Kumar.

There was a traffic jam on the road after the accident on the national highway. A crane was called to the spot around 8:30 am. When the crane pulled out the bus from the ditch, two passengers were found dead. One of them has not been identified.

In another road accident reported from Etah, four polytechnic students, who were waiting for a bus to go to the polytechnic in Kotwali Dehat area, were hit by a Max pickup. All were taken to the medical college hospital where the doctors pronounced one of them dead. As the condition of two of them was critical, they were referred to Agra.

After the accident, the accused driver fled the spot with the vehicle.

Reports said that Divyanshu Tiwari (18) of Shivsinghpur village, Kohinoor Kumar of the same village, Anubhav Raj of Maharajpur village and Akash of Yadav Nagar locality in Avagarh were waiting for bus near Hindustan Lever crossing in Kotwali rural area on Thursday morning. The polytechnic students were going to appear in exams. Suddenly, a speeding Max pickup hit them, injuring them critically. They were brought to the medical college hospital where doctors pronounced Divyanshu dead. After first aid, Kohinoor and Anubhav Raj were referred to Agra in view of their critical condition.

The police have launched a hunt for the driver who fled with the vehicle after knocking down the students.

Police said Akash showed courage and even after being injured he captured the picture of the Max pickup on his mobile phone.