LUCKNOW: Five people were killed and 45 injured when a double-decker bus overturned near the toll on the Purvanchal Expressway here on Monday evening after the driver lost control of the vehicle, police said.
A case has been registered in the matter and the bus driver has been detained, police said.
According to officials, 80-85 passengers were on board the bus, which was going from Ludhiana in Punjab to Motihari in Bihar, when the accident took place.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Lucknow, Nipun Agarwal, said after the information about the accident was received at Gosainganj police station, police and administration officials and ambulances rushed to the spot.
"In this accident, five people -- one man, one woman and three children -- died. Police have sent the injured persons to trauma centres at SGPGI and KGMU, where their condition is said to be stable," Agarwal said.
A case has been registered in connection with the accident, he said.
Three of the deceased were identified as Birendra (30), Anjali (8) and Priyanshu (15).
The identities of the two other deceased, a six-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man, were yet to be ascertained, police said in a statement.
It said 14 of the injured passengers were sent to the King George's Medical University (KGMU) Trauma Centre and 31 to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) Apex Trauma Centre.
The passengers whose condition was stable were sent to their respective destinations, it said.
According to the statement, the bus driver, Sompal, a resident of Panipat in Haryana, has been detained.
Additional DCP (South) Rallapalli Vasanth Kumar said the accident occurred at the 11.2-km mark of the expressway.
After the accident, a crane was called in to lift the overturned bus and clear the expressway.
An injured passenger told PTI Videos that the bus driver was allegedly drunk and speeding.
"Today I left Panipat for Nepal. The driver was driving at a very high speed. He could not control the bus, causing it to overturn," the passenger said.