Bangalore: About 30 people, including 15 women and 8 minors, drowned to death on Saturday when a private bus they were travelling in plunged into a river canal in Karnataka’s Mandya district, police said.
“The mishap occurred around noon at Kanaganamaradi near Pandavapura town, as the bus skidded off the bridge and fell into the Cauvery river canal,’’ a Mandya police control room official told reporters.
Divers of the district fire brigade retrieved bodies of 30 passengers – 15 women, 7 men and 8 minors – from the 40-seater bus before it was lifted by a crane out of the Visveswaraya canal.
The accident spot is 120 km from here on the state highway.
According to a witness, the speeding bus was on way to Mandya from Pandavapura when the driver apparently lost control of the wheel, resulting in the bus veering off the bridge and falling into the 20-feet deep canal, which does not have a retaining wall. Vehicular traffic on the highway was disrupted and rescue work affected, as hundreds of people from the surrounding areas thronged the mishap spot to see the bus plunged into the canal.
Another witness said 10 passengers of the bus survived the mishap by emerging out of the plunged bus and swam to the canal bank.
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who visited the spot to condole the deaths, announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the 30 victims.
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, state Transport Minister DC Thammanna and district in-charge Minister C.S. Puttarajau also visited the accident spot with district Deputy Commissioner N. Manjushri and Superintendent of Police S.P. Devaraj to console the bereaved families and supervise the rescue operation.
District police have registered a case against the bus driver and its operator for the deaths.
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