6 students and a teacher crushed under bus in UP

KANPUR: Six students and a teacher were crushed to death while four others were injured after they were hit by a speeding bus on the Lucknow-agra Expressway on Monday morning, officials said.

Kannauj district magistrate Ravindra Kumar said the accident took place in Tirwa area of Kannauj district at around 4 am.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and announced financial assistance of ~2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and ~50,000 each to those injured.

A police officer said students of basic training certificate (BTC) at Prabha Devi Mahavidyalaya in Sant Kabir Nagar were going on a study tour to Haridwar when the tragedy happened. About 550 BTC students, travelling in 12 buses, were on the study tour.

The officer said one of the buses ran out of fuel after which the driver parked the vehicle on the roadside with blinkers on.

“While the driver was filling diesel from a container, some of the students went to relieve themselves. As t hey were returning, they were hit by a roadways bus,” he said.

The victims were identified as teacher Vijay Kumar and stu- dents Mahesh Gupta, Abhay Pratap Singh, Mithilesh Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Jitendra Kumar Yadav, and Satish.

Drivers Radhey Shyam and Balram Tiwari, bus conductor Chintaharan and Pramod Bharti sustained injuries and were admitted to Kannauj medical college.

A government spokesman said, “Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has condoled the deaths in the Kannauj accident and announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured persons.”

He said the CM also directed the officials to lodge an FIR and ensure proper medical treatment to the injured.

Police have registered a case at Gursahaigunj police station and are trying to get the CCTV footage from the places where the roadways bus might have passed after the accident.

“We are trying to identify the bus. The injured persons have told us that it was a roadways bus but they could not see the registration number or its depot as it was dark,” a police officer said.

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who was on his way to Lucknow from Saifai, stopped in Kannauj. Calling the accident unfortunate, he demanded a compensation of ~20 lakh each to the family of the deceased.