At least two persons were killed and 42 others feared drowned when a Punjab Roadways bus fell into a canal near Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab early on Wednesday. The bus was on its way from Delhi to Amritsar via Jalandhar when the mishap took place on the Ambala-Ludhiana stretch of NH 1 at around 2.15 am.
“At least 45 passengers had boarded the bus from Delhi late last night (on Tuesday). Two bodies have been fished out from the canal,” said SSP Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurmeet Singh Chauhan and added that the bus had been pulled out of the canal with the help of the cranes.
Due to the strong currents in the canal, the bus was swept downstream for about 3km before getting stuck at Saundh headworks from where the Bhakra Main Line Canal and Narwana Canal get separated, said police sources.
Meanwhile, the authorities have sounded an alert along the Bhakra Main Line canal, Narwana canal and Sirhind feeder so that the bodies of the other passengers could be fished out.
The local police and civil administration, along with divers, including those from the Army, are carrying out the search operations as it is feared that the bodies could have been swept downstream to a distance of up to 30 km, officials said. Although sources put the death toll at 40-45,the SSP said it was too early to confirm the exact number of casualties.
The body of one of the dead victims was found trapped inside the drowned bus and it was brought ashore with the help of a crane, while the body of the second victim was recovered from village Ganduian Kheri (Narwana).
According to Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner Arun Sekhri, the identity of the deceased victims is yet to be established. Even though the bus had a seating capacity of 52, some of the passengers had got down along the way.Despite the alacrity shown by the district administration in seeking the help of the professional divers early on, the latter were initially unwilling to enter the waters owing to the high water level.