In a freak accident, a packed passenger bus was swept away by flash floods of a swollen river in Bankura district, leaving two people dead and many missing.
The mishap occurred at around 1.30 pm when a bus, going from Jhargram in West Midnapore district to Durgapur in Burdwan district, while crossing a culvert near Phulukushmar village in Barikul police station area got caught in a flash flood. The driver apparently lost control and the bus first turned turtle and was then swept away for nearly 300 metre downstream. He was later arrested by the administration.
According to the superintendent of police (SP), Bankura, Mukesh Kumar, the incident took place on the Bankura-Barikul State Highway 9 over the Bhairavbanki River whose water level rose due to heavy rains along with the release of water from the Kanshabati River. “The bus driver took risk of crossing the culvert despite other vehicles standing at both the ends after seeing the water level rising parallel to that of the culvert. The engine of the bus stopped in the middle of the culvert and soon was swept away 300 metre downstream by the flash flood,” Mr Kumar added.
A passenger Tarun Kanti Payen said that at least 70 people were travelling in the bus when the driver lost control but locals and the passengers who could save themselves started the rescue operations. “While a 12 year-old boy Jeet Gorai and a 28-year-old man Somnath Datta died, 20 people were sent to Raipur General Hospital, 15 to Barikul Hospital and five were sent to Bankura Medical College and hospital,” the SP added.
The district administration also informed that 15-20 people got out of the bus when it stopped in the middle but those who were sitting on the roof were mainly injured. Locals started the rescue operations first, as the disaster management team from Borjora reached bit late due to the flood-like situation because of the heavy rains for past two days. “A total of 65 people, 45 people by the state administration and 20 others by the locals were rescued,” sub-divisional officer Debapriya Biswas said.
District magistrate G.A. Ansari said, “We cannot say the exact number of people travelling in that ill-fated bus. Divers have been deployed. There is too much of rain and rescue work is difficult. I have also heard that five to six people have been washed away but I am not sure about it.”
Meanwhile, the Regional Meteorological Centre, Alipore, did not predict any respite from the rains in next 24 hours. Met director G.C. Debnath said, “Although the monsoon trough is still active over the East Central and Andaman Bay along with the low pressure situation over the lower north-west Madhya Pradesh, Kolkata along with the south Bengal and Gangetic Bengal districts would receive moderate to heavy rainfall.”