Five killed, 12 injured as speeding sleeper bus crashes into bridge wall in MP's Rajgarh

Five people lost their lives and 12 others were injured after a fast-moving sleeper bus rammed into the safety wall of a bridge in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district on Friday morning, police said. 

The accident took place around 7 am on the Bhopal bypass bridge in Biaora, an official said. 

The official said the bus was en route from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to Indore when it went out of control while taking a curve on the bridge, slamming into the protective wall. 

Police reached the spot soon after and moved the injured to Civil Hospital in Biaora, from where four people in critical condition were sent to Bhopal for further treatment. 

Rajgarh Superintendent of Police Amit Tolani said five individuals, including a police officer, died in the crash, while 12 others, among them two women, were injured. 

He said the force of the collision shattered the bus's windows, causing passengers in the upper sleeper berths to be thrown out of the vehicle. 

The deceased include Ravi KP (45), a police inspector from Bengaluru; Vikas Shukla (29), a bus driver from Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh; Belal Ali (23) of Gopalganj, Bihar; Guddu Kushwaha from Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh; and Jyotiradit Singh from Vijayawada.

According to the official, initial findings suggest the bus was speeding, which is likely what caused the accident.  (with inputs from PTI)