Tamil Nadu: 19 kiled as container lorry rams into KSRTC bus
Chennai/Tiruppur/UNI: At least 19 passengers were killed and more than 20 injured when a container lorry carrying tiles rammed into a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus on the Tiruppur-Avinashi six lane National highway at Avinashi in Tiruppur district, early on Thursday.
Police sources said the dead included five women.
Among the injured, who were rushed to the government hospital, the condition of several passengers was stated to be 'very critical'.
The KSRTC Volvo bus was proceeding to Trivandrum from Salem, when the driver of the container lorry coming on the other side of the road jumped over the median and rammed into the bus.
The impact of the collision was such that the KSRTC bus was reduced to mangled heap and the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services personnel struggled hard to rescue the injured people.
The rescuers had used gas cutters to cut open the twisted metal of the bus to pull out the injured and bodies.
Preliminary reports said there were 48 passengers in the ill-fated bus.
District Collector Vijaya Karthikeyan visited the spot and inspected the rescue operations.
The neighbouring Palakkad district officials were also informed about the accident.
UNI adds from Kerala:
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday condoled the death of 19 passengers in the accident
The Chief Minister directed the District Collector of Palakkad to provide emergency medical care to those in critical condition in the neighbouring State, an official release said.
Mr Vijayan also directed to take immediate steps to bring the bodies of Malayalees from the accident spot, and the Tiruppur District Collector has contacted the Tamil Nadu Government in this regard.
The KSRTC Volvo AC bus was heading towards Trivandrum from Salem when the accident occurred at Avinashi near Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, Kerala Transport Minister AK Saseendran announced a helpline number '9495099910' (the number of Palakkad ATO) to know the details of those involved in the accident.
He also directed the KSRTC Managing Director to initiate a probe into the accident in which the bus driver and the conductor was also reportedly killed.
Atleast 19 passengers were killed and more than 20 injured in the accident.
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