Six persons were killed and 18 injured when a private bus fell into a flooded river near Raisen in Madhya Pradesh in the wee hours of Thursday.
The incident took place around 1.30 am, at a spot about 40 km from the state capital Bhopal.
The Chhatarpur-bound bus which had started from Indore fell into the Richhan river, Raisen district collector Uma Shankar Bhargava told.
Six passengers were killed and 18 others were injured, he said.
Eleven of the injured persons were sent to Bhopal for treatment while seven were admitted to the district hospital, he added.
He himself and Superintendent of Police Monica Shukla rushed to the spot to supervise the rescue operation, and efforts were on to pull the bus out from the water with the help of a crane, Bhargava said.
The bus was probably speeding and fell off the bridge after breaking its side-wall as the driver lost control, he said. Raisen district collector Umashankar Bhargav also got injured in the rescue operation. The river is in spate following continuous rains, the collector added. As soon as the District Collector and Superintendent of Police received the information about the bus accident on the Reichhan river bridge near Raisen district headquarters late Wednesday, they rushed to the site along with their force and rescued people trapped in the bus. The injured victims were immediately admitted to the district hospital and the seriously injured were sent to the Government Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal.
Chaudhary reached the district hospital to meet the injured victims as soon as the information was received about the incident. He obtained information about the treatment of the injured from doctors and gave necessary instructions.
Chaudhary met the relatives of the deceased and expressed deep condolences. He consoled the affected families and assured them of all possible assistance by the government -administration in this hour of grief. Minister Prabhuram Chaudhary immediately provided a total financial assistance of Rs 29,82,500 lakh to the families of the deceased, seriously injured and other injured passengers in the bus accident.