MUMBAI: Twenty-six people were killed after a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus and an auto-rickshaw collided and fell into a well in Nashik district on Tuesday night, the police said.
The deceased include 14 men, ten women and two girls. The recovery of more bodies from the well is on, police said adding that 32 people were injured. According to the police, after colliding with the auto-rickshaw, the bus dragged it along and both the vehicles fell into a roadside well.
“As of now we have pulled out 15 bodies from the well and injured have been rushed to state-run hospitals in Malegaon and Deola,” Sadashiv Waghmare, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nashik Rural, said. All the deceased were identified and the process to hand over bodies to the relatives was on, he added.The injured were being treated at hospitals at Umrane, Deola and Malegaon in the district.
Both the vehicles had been pulled out of the well, the official added. The deceased include Kalpana (30) and her two-year-old twin daughters, Riddhi and Siddhi. Eight members of the family of Shakeel Mansuri were also among those who died. The conductor of the bus, Kamal Laxman Raut survived. Its driver Prakash Bachhav (55) was killed.
The state government has declared Rs 10 lakh help to the families of the deceased and said that it will also pay for all the medical expenses of those injured in the accident.
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