33 Dead As Bus Carrying University Employees Skids Off Mumbai-Goa Highway
RAIGAD, July 28: 33 employees of an agricultural university in Maharashtra were killed when a bus they were travelling in skidded off a mountain stretch on the Mumbai-Goa highway this morning. The police said 11 bodies have been recovered from the accident site in Maharashtra's Raigad district.
A total of 34 people were on the bus, the police said. The vehicle fell 500 feet down the mountain, news agency IANS reported.
State minister Vinod Tawde tweeted he has asked officials to go to the accident site and start rescue operations immediately.
The stretch of the highway in the Western Ghats where the accident happened had been receiving heavy rain for the past few days.
Raigad police officer PD Patil said the employees of Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth were going somewhere for a weekend picnic.
The only survivor of the crash managed to climb up the road and alert the police, after which rescuers reached the area. A team of the National Disaster Response Force from Pune is involved in search and rescue operations.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted he has asked party workers in the area to provide "all possible assistance to the injured and families of those who have died". President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted they are pained by the loss of lives in the bus accident.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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Fire breaks out in residential building in east Delhi, nine killed
New Delhi (PTI): At least nine people were killed after a fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar early Sunday, officials said.
The incident was reported around 3.48 am at a four-storey building in Vivek Vihar Phase-I, following which police, fire and disaster management teams rushed to the spot.
According to the police, the blaze engulfed flats on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, prompting a large-scale rescue operation.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
"Around 10 to 15 people were rescued from the premises during the firefighting operation. Two of them, who sustained minor injuries, were shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital," a senior police officer said.
A total of 12 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, while teams from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), traffic police and local police assisted in the rescue and evacuation efforts.
Police said the fire was brought under control after several hours.
The identities of the deceased are yet to be ascertained, and efforts are underway to determine the cause of the fire, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings are underway.
