4 feared dead as car falls into Gzb 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. Harshit and Anmol were Class 12 students in Muzaffarnagar. Himanshu, Kanika and Shrishti were management students in Dehradun. Nishant was employed with the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department.
Sukhvir Singh, Himanshu’s father, said the friends were on an outing their families did not know about. “Harshit and Anmol told us that Nishant was driving the SUV at a high speed. The place was enveloped by fog that resulted in reduced visibility. To avoid crashing into the stationary Wagonr [which had met with an accident], Nishant took a sudden turn and lost control on the SUV,” he added.