Seventeen people were killed and 26 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck transporting gas cylinders in Jharkhand’s Pakur district on Wednesday morning, the police said.
The accident happened around 8.30 a.m. on the Govindpur-Sahibganj State highway at Paderkola village in Amrapara police station area, they said.
The bus with around 40 passengers on board was heading to Jasidih in Deoghar district from Barharwa in Sahibganj.
Several people trapped inside the bus had to be brought out after dismantling the vehicle with gas-cutters, police said.
Heavy fog in the area could be the reason behind the accident, they said, adding, fortunately none of the gas cylinders on the truck exploded.
The district administration has announced an ex-gratia of ₹1 lakh each for the kith and kin of those killed in the accident. “The death toll in the accident has increased to 17, while the number of injured is 26,” Civil Surgeon of Pakur R.D. Paswan said.
