2 women among 4 feared dead as car falls into Ghaziabad canal

GHAZIABAD:Four people including two women were feared drowned after their SUV, which was allegedly running at a high speed, plunged into a canal in Ghaziabad late on Saturday night, the police said.

The vehicle, carrying six friends aged between 18 and 23, lost balance after trying to avoid a stationary car and fell into the waters in the Upper Ganga Canal near Muradnagar, the police added.

Harshit Kumar and Anmol Deshwal, both 18, managed to swim to safety. Himanshu

Chaudhary, 18, Kanika Bindal, 22, Shrishti Joshi, 21, and Nishant Chaudhary, 23, could not be found by search teams till Sunday evening.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have joined the operations.

The group was headed to Mathura from Dehradun. Many of those travelling to Uttarakhand, take the two-lane canal road between Muradnagar and Niwari police stations.

It appeared that the SUV, a Mahindra XUV 500, was being driven at a high speed, the police said. It shattered the roadside concrete parapet and plunged into the canal. The car belonged to Nishant, who was at the wheel when the accident took place, the police said.

“Harshit and Anmol somehow managed to climb to the roof of the vehicle and shouted for help. The police were already at the spot to investigate another road accident and they were able to rescue the duo with the help of a rope,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, the superintendent of police (rural). “However, the other passengers could not be found even as teams of NDRF and dozens of local divers were roped in,” he added. All four men were residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. The women were from Dehradun.