Uttar Pradesh: Three killed as car rams devotees gathered outside Durga Puja pandal in Balrampur

Representational image. File pic

In a tragic incident, a speeding car ran over devotees watching a video outside a Durga puja pandal in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district, killing three people and injuring four others, police said on Sunday, October 18.

As per PTI, the incident took place late Saturday night in Chirgahiyan Belha village, Superintendent of Police Martand Prakash Singh said.

Singh said that the devotees were watching a video outside the pandal when the car heading towards Siddharthnagar ran over them.

Police rushed the injured to the District Memorial Hospital in Balrampur, where doctors declared three people dead.

The deceased were identified as Manoj Singh (40), Ganesh (35) and Pateshwari (50), the SP said.

Four others were injured in the incident. Two of them, identified as Chhedi Ram (45) and Dablu (35), were referred to a hospital in Bahraich.

The police official added, "Bodies have been sent for postmortem examination," the police added.

14 killed, as truck rams devotees in Gwalior

In a separate incident during the early hours of Sunday, fourteen persons were killed and nearly 28 others suffered injuries when a truck crashed into several devotees waiting near a temple in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior city.

A wall of the temple crashed under the impact of the collision, they said, adding that two to four of the injured persons were critical, as per PTI.

The incident, which occurred around 1.30 am outside the Sheetla Mata temple near a slope on Chinor Road, raised concerns about security arrangements at the shrine, as the truck, with a Punjab registration number, entered the no-entry zone, officials said.

Brake failure may have cause the collision

As per PTI, the truck crashed into several devotees and roadside shops before hitting the temple's entrance gate, an official said.

An investigator while briefing about the incident said that the truck's brakes may have failed, forcing the driver to swerve left in a desperate attempt to control the vehicle. Had it continued straight, he said, it would have ploughed into at least 600 to 700 devotees.

Gwalior Collector Ruchika Chauhan said, "Today, at around 1:30 AM, information was received that a truck coming from the direction of Chhinor towards the temple lost control and veered continuously to the left."

(With inputs from PTI)