The bus carrying 56 passengers from Indore and Dhar districts overturned near Baigur village, about 80 km from the district headquarters, around 8 am, an official said
The vehicle overturned, started skidding and hit a divider before coming to a screeching halt, police said. Representational Pic/File
A woman passenger was killed and 55 others sustained injuries after a bus carrying pilgrims for 'Narmada Parikrama' overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district on Friday morning, police said, reported the PTI.
The bus carrying 56 passengers from Indore and Dhar districts overturned near Baigur village, about 80 km from the district headquarters, around 8 am, an official said.
"The vehicle overturned, started skidding and hit a divider before coming to a screeching halt. There was a deep gorge near the scene, and the accident could have been much worse if the bus had fallen into it," Barwani Superintendent of Police Jagdish Dawar told PTI.
The bus transporting pilgrims for 'Narmada Parikrama' left Indore on October 29 and reached Barwani, where the devotees spent a day and left for their onward journey on Friday morning, he said, according to the PTI.
A woman was killed, and among the injured, 15 are referred to Barwani district hospital for treatment, while the rest were undergoing treatment at the Khetia primary health centre, the official said.
After the accident, locals, the State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF), and the police worked together to rescue passengers, and police from the Khetia, Pansemal, and Pati police station areas were also mobilised.
Two passengers trapped inside the vehicle were rescued after an effort of two to three hours.
Dawar said preliminary investigation suggested that the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to overturn.
Pansemal BJP MLA Shyam Burde, who also reached the site, said he had informed Chief Minister Mohan Yadav about the tragic accident and discussed relief assistance.
"Local sarpanches and BJP workers helped rescue the injured and transport them to hospitals," he said, the news agency reported.
'Narmada Parikrama' is the circumambulation of the sacred River Narmada.
Meanwhile, in an another incident, a driver and a conductor had a narrow escape after a private bus caught fire in the Sector 59 area in Gurugram on Thursday, an official said, reported the PTI.
The incident took place in the morning when a private bus was leaving the parking lot to pick up employees of a private company.
Suddenly, the bus caught fire causing a panic, police said, adding that the driver and conductor saved their lives by jumping out of the vehicle.
After receiving information, the teams of police and fire brigade reached the spot and controlled the fire within time, but the bus was fully gutted by fire, they said.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, but it is believed to have been a short circuit, he added.
The bus was registered in the name of Nitin Rathi of Bahadurgarh and a probe is underway, police said, the news agency reported.
(with PTI inputs)
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