57 die in Karnataka bus accident

Bangalore, Jan 10: Fifty-seven people, including 18 women and two children, were killed early Monday when a state-run bus plunged into a canal in Karnataka.

The bus was on its way from Hubli to Chitapur in Gulbarga district, overturned at the Almatti dam canal in the northern district of Bijapur when the driver lost control.

Nine passengers survived the accident after swimming to safety, Bijapur Superintendent of Police S.K. Singh told. “The incident took place around 3 a.m. when the jam-packed (Karnataka State Road Transport Corp) bus fell into the swirling waters while negotiating a sharp curve,” Singh said.

“Since the depth of the canal was at least 15 feet, we had to deploy four cranes to lift the mangled bus for retrieving some bodies that got entangled inside. Most victims were asleep when the accident took place,” Singh said.

By late afternoon, the bodies of all the victims were recovered from the canal near Nidugundi village, about 60 km from Bijapur and 480 km from Bangalore.

According to eyewitnesses, rescuers had to break the windowpanes of the bus to pull out the victims after two cranes failed to lift the bus out of the canal.

“The bus fell into a deep canal downstream of the Almatti dam. We cannot confirm the cause yet but it appears from early investigations that the driver lost control,” Singh said.

Nine people survived, including the driver and the conductor. The driver had fled from the area and police were looking for him, the officer said.

Authorities had stopped the water flow into the canal from the dam to reduce the water level to help the rescue work.

The Almatti dam is built across the Krishna River, which flows from Karnataka into neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state.