Tragedy hit Etah when 12 children along with driver of a school bus were killed and 35 children were injured when their vehicle collided with a truck amid dense fog on Aliganj-Paliyali road on early Thursday morning.
The bus was carrying students to J S Vidyaniketan school which had opened despite the district magistrate’s orders to keep all schools closed in view of intense cold, officials said. The mishap occurred near Asadnagar village under Aliganj Kotwali police station area in Etah. District Magistrate, Etah, Shambhu Nath put the toll at 13 including driver and said 8 of them died on the spot. The injured students were rushed to nearby primary health centre from where 10 were referred to Medial College in Aligarh.
On directions of the District Magistrate, local police registered case against the school owners Sudhir Kumar and Ajit Kumar along with the college principal Govind Srivastava. Orders were also issued to cancel the recognition of the school. Those who died in the mishap were identified as Himanshu (9), Vikas (5), lavish (11), Sunny (14), Anuj (10), Shivani (11), Kishen (6), Pankaj (13), Radhika (15), Nikki (12), Diksha (9), Rishabh (6) and driver Akash (40).
Soon after getting the news, senior officials rushed to the accident spot and supervised rescue and relief operations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor Ram Naik and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav both condole the death of children in the mishap. “Anguished by the tragic accident in UP’s Etah district. I share the pain of the bereaved families & condole passing away of young children,” Modi said in a tweet. “I pray that those injured in the accident in Etah recover at the earliest,” he said. Akhilesh Yadav directed the officials to extend best medical care to the victims.
Meanwhile in one more mishap reported from Fatehgarh, 9 children were injured when their school van collided with a tanker on Thursday morning. Reports said that a Tata Magic (UP76K-3399) was carrying children of BHl Public School when it collided with Tata Tanker (UP38T-2313) at Eklehra hamlet of Kamphil in which 9 children and the driver was injured. The injured were shifted to hospital and further legal action has been initiated against the driver.