West Bengal jetty collapse: Death toll rises to 5, police book 4

According to reports, bodies of a young male and a woman were recovered from yesterday's accident site in the morning.

Earlier on Wednesday noon, a temporary jetty reportedly submerged in Hooghly river (Ganges), after being hit by a high tide, at Telenipara area under Bhadreswar Police Station limits in West Bengal's Hooghly district.

Nearly 70 people, including women, children and seniors, were waiting for ferry on the jetty that time and over 60 of them fell into water after the bamboo-made jetty collapsed.

Following the mishap, locals and police from nearby Telenipara police outpost had started rescue efforts and hours later, Kolkata Police's Disaster Management Group (DMG) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) joined the operation.

Bodies of two men and a aged woman were recovered from the river on Wednesday afternoon while seven other were rescued alive and sent to a nearby hospital.

Police officials said that two bodies have been recovered on Thursday morning, while around 20 people are still missing.

"Deceased have been identified as Saba Qureshi, Manas Ghosh, Raja Choudhury and Sadique Mostafa, while identity of another dead woman has not been known so far," a senior police official told IBNS.

"Rescue operation is still underway with full efforts in Hooghly river to find the missing," the official added.

Hours after the crash, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh for the kin of those killed in the accident and a compensation of Rs. 25,000 for the injured.

Meanwhile, based on an FIR, lodged by a local resident Krishna Prasad Singh, police on Wednesday night arrested four lessees of the jetty- Sukamal Chakraborty, Dipankar Banerjee, Sujit Ganguly and Subhas Pal.

"We have booked four persons, who were responsible for the crashed jetty's maintenance works," an officer of Hooghly district police told IBNS.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Image: Facebook)