Sidhi/Rewa: At least 37 people, including 16 women, died after the bus they were travelling in fell off a bridge into a canal near Patna village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district on Tuesday morning, a senior official said, adding that search operations are still going on.
After fishing out 18 bodies initially, rescuers have retrieved 19 more bodies until now, said Rewa divisional commissioner Rajesh Jain.
“A total of 37 bodies, including 16 women, 20 men and a child, have been fished out of the Bansagar canal until now,” he said, adding that a magisterial probe has been ordered.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.
He tweeted that teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local authorities were conducting rescue operations at the spot.
Without specifying the number of the deceased, the chief minister said many “precious lives” were lost in the accident.
Prima facie, 44 passengers were travelling on the bus at the time of the accident, which occurred around 8:30 am.
“Seven persons managed to swim to the banks of the canal after the incident and 37 bodies have been recovered.
“The 44 passengers have been identified so far,” Jain added.
Earlier in the morning, inspector general (Rewa zone) Joga had confirmed the recovery of 18 bodies from the accident site.
The bus landed into the canal near Patna village, around 80 km away from the Sidhi district headquarter, around 8:30 am.
Chouhan has cancelled a mass house-warming ceremony to be attended virtually by Union home minister Amit Shah. Shah was scheduled to take part in this programme, scheduled to be held at 11 am in Minto Hall in Bhopal, for the beneficiaries of over one lakh houses constructed in Madhya Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
(PTI)