According to police, 15 people were killed and 25 were injured when a speeding bus collided with a truck in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district on Friday night.
The majority of the victims were from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The bus was travelling from Hyderabad to Gorakhpur.
“The accident took place at Sohagi hillock, 70 km from the headquarter, on Friday night. According to the injured, the driver lost control over the bus and it collided with a truck from behind,” said Rewa superintendent of police (SP), Navneet Bhasin.
The bodies were extracted using a JCB during the rescue operation. The injured have been taken to Rewa’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, he said.
According to the injured, they work as labourers in Hyderabad and were returning home to celebrate Diwali.
The bodies are being identified and will be sent to Gorakhpur, according to Rewa district collector Manoj Pushp.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, spoke with his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath about the rescue operation.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the next of kin of each deceased in the tragic accident, and that the injured will receive Rs 50,000.