As many as seven members of a wedding party died and four others were critically injured when a Bolero vehicle carrying them skidded and plunged into the Sasan Canal near Bishalkhinda in Sambalpur district in the wee hours of Friday.
The deceased were identified as Ajit Khamari, Dibya Luha, Suraj Sethi, Sumant Bhoi, Subrat Bhoi, Shatrughna Bhoi and Umakant Bhuyan.
The body of the driver of the vehicle was the last one to be fished out by Fire Service personnel.
The wedding party from Badadhara village of Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district had come to Paramanpur of Sambalpur on Thursday evening. After completion of the marriage and taking dinner, 11 or 12 persons were returning to their village in the vehicle that plunged into the canal when the driver couldn't see a turning on the road properly due to torrential rain.
However, four persons managed to come out of the vehicle by breaking the window glass. "But due to heavy rain, darkness and strong current in the water, we couldn't save our friends, " said Lalit Khamari, one of the injured admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH).
Sambalpur Sub-Collector Pravash Dansena said police, Fire Service personnel, social workers, volunteers and villagers conducted the rescue operation. But they could only fish out the dead bodies and the vehicle.
After postmortem, the bodies were sent to Badadhara village, the Sub-Collector said.
In another incident, three youths were killed when their motorcycle dashed against a roadside tree near Pathara Chhak in the Odagaon area of Nayagarh district on Thursday night.
The deceased were identified as Madhab Pradhan (20), Suryakant Pradhan (19) and Rajesh Naik (19) of Maheswarpur village under the Odagaon Model police station in the district.
According to reports, the mishap took place at around 12 midnight when the trio was returning homee after witnessing a Ram Navami fair in a nearby village.
The youths were rescued in by locals in critical conditions and rushed to Odagaon Community Health Centre, where Suryakant was declared brought dead. The other two were shifted to the Nayagarh DHH as their conditions deteriorated. However, they were also declared brought dead.