Nine die in tempo-truck collision in Chitrakoot
KANPUR: At least nine people, including seven girl students, died after the tempo in which they were travelling collided with a truck in Chitrakoot on Monday afternoon, police said.
The tempo had 10 people on board when it collided with a truck on the Jhansi-Mirzapur highway near Sucheta colony in Bargarh, they added.
Superintendent of police, Chitrakoot, Manoj Kumar Jha said eight people died on the spot while another girl succumbed to injuries while being shifted to Allahabad in the evening.
“A 16-year-old girl, Anchal, who is the only survivor of the accident, is undergoing treatment at district hospital,” he said and added the police were looking for the truck driver who fled the spot.
The collision was so strong that the front portion of the tempo nearly disappeared and many of the victims came under the wheels of the truck.
The tempo, said to be unregistered, was taking students to their respective school and colleges.
The victims were identified as Kavita Devi (18), Sonam (19), Savita (19), Chhaya (12), Rangeeli (14), Pramila (18), Sadhnam (17), Ashish Singh (38) and driver Manik Chandra (38).
Police said most of the victims were identified with the help of text messages randomly sent to contact numbers saved in the mobile phones recovered from the spot. Tempers ran high when the parents and relatives of victims reached the spot. They demanded that the police should bring back four bodies to the spot which were earlier shifted to the hospital.Hundreds of people staged a road blockade and pelted the policemen with stones. Some policemen were hurt in brick-batting and the vehicle of the circle officer of Mau was damaged. The people did not allow MP Bhairon Prasad Mishra and MLA RK Singh Patel reach the accident site. “The protesters have been pacified and the bodies have been sent for autopsy. We are trying to ascertain whose fault led to the accident,” the SP said.