28 kids killed as school bus plunges into river
At least 28 students were killed and as many as 70 injured today when a school bus, packed with about 120 children, fell off a bridge into the Yamuna river in north Delhi.
About 20 of the victims are still missing and it is feared that some of them could have been washed away as the current in the river was quite strong.
Police said 67 students were rescued from the river
and taken to the Bara Hindu Rao hospital, about four km
from the accident site. All but four of them were stated to be
out of danger. The students belonged to the government school, Ludlow Castle (number two).
As many as 10 bodies were recovered more than two hours after the bus fell off the Wazirabad bridge, near the Inter-State Bus Terminus, into the river at around 0715 hours.
Divers, fitted with oxygen cylinders, from the navy
and other agencies were still searching for the missing students.
Teacher Tej Pal Singh Tomar, who was injured in the
incident, said the bus was running at a high speed when
it skidded and fell into the river, after jumping over the nearly one-foot
high and 10-feet wide footpath and breaking about ten iron railings.
Driver Kiranpal has also been admitted to the hospital.
Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma and Police Commissioner
T R Kakkar supervised rescue operations and later visited
victims at the hospital.
An inquiry by Deputy Commissioner (north) Jitendra
Narayan has been ordered into the accident.
The chief minister announced an ex gratia payment
of Rs 100,000 to the families of each of those killed, Rs 10,000
to the seriously injured and Rs 5,000 for those who sustained
minor injuries.
Verma said Ludlow Castle School Principal Sant Ram has been suspended as the bus was ''overloaded''. The traffic inspector posted in the area has also been suspended.
The school had a list of 120 students travelling by the bus.
Asked how the school allowed so many students
to travel by one bus, Sant Ram said new admissions from
the trans-Yamuna areas were inadvertently marked for the same
bus.
The students, however, said the school had hired about a dozen buses and each of these carried more than 80 students. About 2,000 students study at the school.
About 95 school bags of the victims were recovered
from the river and the bus.
Police identified the victims from the names on the
books in the school bags, which had been kept in a pile on the bank.
Sub-divisional Magistrate V K Sarin conducted an
inquiry at the school.
The bus, which had fallen on its side in the two-metre
deep river, was pulled out three hours after the
accident.
Six of the sluice gates at the bridge were closed
to facilitate rescue operations. But this was done only about
half an hour after the accident.
Eyewitnesses said most of those children missing were possibly
washed away due to the delay in the closure of the sluice gates.
The rescue operation was initiated by Provincial
Armed Constabulary personnel who had pitched a camp on the
river bank.
They were soon joined by the police and navy personnel
and local people. Six boats had been pressed into service.
Older students who swam to safety were seen crying,
looking around desperately for their younger siblings
travelling with them.
Local people lit a fire using the wood lying on the river bank as the rescued students were shivering in the morning cold.
At the hospital, wailing students crowded around the lists of those killed and injured, put up on the notice board.
Several students also staged a demonstration, demanding action against the principal as well as the police, who, they said, should have checked the overcrowding in buses.
The chief minister is camping at the hospital to supervise relief operations along with Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Chief Secretary P V Jayakrishnan and other senior officers.
UNI
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Photographs kind courtesy: Star News
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