9 killed, 24 injured in Assam bus accident

At least nine persons, including five women, were killed and 24 injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a roadside ditch at Uluani in Nagaon district on Sunday. The incident occurred when the bus ferrying passengers from Lakhimpur district to Guwahati for a train journey to Delhi hit the railing of a small bridge before rolling down into a ditch at around 1.30 am, Superintendent of Police Arabinda Kalita said.

Eight persons, including the bus driver, died on the spot, while a woman succumbed to her wounds in hospital, he said.

The injured passengers were admitted to hospital. Five critically injured persons were referred to the GauhatiMedicalCollegeHospital, Kalita said.

The surviving passengers said the chartered bus was carrying 35 people from Lakhimpur district to Guwahati so that they could board a train on Sunday morning for their onward journey to Delhi

The passengers alleged that some of them were stranded on the road midway between Jakhalabandha and Nagaon towns as the state government emergency service ambulances did not have diesel to travel further.

They could reach Nagaon for treatment only after about four hours when fuel was brought and filled in, they claimed.

Image: Authorities rush the injured to the hospital after the bus fell into a roadside ditch at Uluani in Nagaon district, Assam. Photograph: ANI/Twitter