In yet another tragic incident due to heavy downpour in the State, four members of a family got washed away in flood water of Koel River in lohardaga while travelling to Ranchi for treatment in an ambulance on Wednesday.
“The four people swept away in the flood water have been identified as Gopal Prasad, wife Shanti Devi (50), son Kaushal Kishore (28) and daughter Anshu Priya (18), while the driver of the vehicle and son-in-law Rajesh Rajak, had a miraculous escape who had got down the vehicle to push it in order to get it started,” said lohardaga DC Binod Kumar. The incident took place around 5:30 am following which the district administration officials reached immediately reach the spot, he added.
“Gopal Prasad, a teacher by profession, was heading towards Ranchi along with his family for treatment after being referred to Ranchi by local doctors in Daltonganj, but as soon as they reached over Sithio Bridge in lohardaga, the ambulance they were travelling got stuck due to a technical snag,” Kumar said. Since the river water was already overflowing the bridge, it increased further and washed the vehicle away with four members of the family in it, he added.
The DC said that the driver of the ambulance fled from the scene while son-in-law Rajak somehow managed to save his life by swimming. The family members reportedly refused to get out of the vehicle leaving paralysed Prasad in the vehicle following which they got washed away in the river.
“The driver, however, was reluctant to pass through the overflowing bridge but agreed to drive through it after they insisted him to do so. A massive search operation has been launched to trace the victims even as rains continued and a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been called in to help the district administration,” the DC said. All concerned police stations have been alerted following the incident, he added.
The district administration reached the spot within 15 minutes with a crane and ropes, and started rescue operation but all efforts went in vain, Kumar said.
Remarkably, the family opted to reach Ranchi through lohardaga following reports that Kudu route was closed down after a tree fell down on the road.
Meanwhile, incessant downpour for last five days has created havoc, claiming at least nine lives so far in the last 48 hours from different parts of the State.
Three persons were killed in Ranchi on Tuesday after a tree fell down on an auto-rickshaw while one each was killed in Dhanbad and Hazaribagh.