Eight people were killed and eight others injured after a minibus carrying around 23 members of a family from Madhya Pradesh fell into a 15-foot-deep drain beside the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Kota district early Saturday morning, police said.
The crash occurred around 6 am under the jurisdiction of Simliya police station, after the vehicle veered off the expressway. The family had left Bhopal at about 7 pm on Friday and was travelling to the Khatu Shyamji temple in Rajasthan’s Sikar district, according to the report.
Rescue teams reached the site and began removing passengers from the damaged vehicle. The operation was complicated by mud and accumulated water inside the drain, which made it difficult for emergency personnel to access the minibus and recover those trapped inside.
Cranes were deployed to lift the vehicle from the drain. Simliya station house officer Nand Singh told the Times of India that eight bodies had been retrieved from the wreckage during the ongoing rescue operation. He said approximately 23 passengers were believed to have been travelling in the minibus.
Eight injured passengers were taken to medical facilities in Kota, including New Medical College Hospital and MBS Hospital. Police said three ambulances were used to transport the injured for treatment.
Authorities had not yet established the identities of those killed or injured when the report was published. Police were also continuing to verify the number and details of passengers who had been travelling in the vehicle.
The reported design and operating conditions at the crash location, including the relationship between the expressway carriageway and the adjacent drain, had not been established in the information available. The rescue operation and identification process were continuing, while authorities assessed whether the casualty figure could change as teams cleared the wreckage.
