At least eight people from Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district were killed, and around nine were injured after a tempo traveller veered off the road and fell into a 15-foot-deep drain on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan on Saturday morning, police said.

The accident occurred around 6 am, in Kota district of Rajasthan, officials said. Emergency personnel immediately launched rescue operations, despite the silt and water accumulated inside the drain severely hampering their efforts. Cranes were deployed to retrieve the damaged vehicle and rescue the passengers trapped inside.