British Indian family in freak Iceland crash, 3 dead
London, Dec 28: Seven members of a UK-based Indian-origin family were involved in a freak accident in Iceland when their SUV crashed off a bridge on Thursday, killing two women and a child.
Four others, including two British Indian brothers and two young children, remain in critical condition after being airlifted to a hospital in Iceland's capital Reykjavik.
The family was reportedly on holiday in the Nordic island country when their hired Toyota Land Cruiser slammed through a railing while crossing a high single-lane bridge at Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain in the southern part of the country.
Icelandic Police have only identified the victims as British, with their names to be released on formal identification.
Local media reports have named the deceased women as sisters-in-law Rajshree and Khushboo Laturia and an infant girl.
Rajshree's husband, Shreeraj, and his brother Supreme remain in hospital with two young children.
The Indian Ambassador to Iceland, T Armstrong Changsan, visited the injured at Landspitali hospital, where he spoke to hospital staff and the chaplain before contacting family members in India.
He confirmed that three people died, one of them a young child, and said the other family members were in a "stable" condition in hospital on Thursday night.
"It is a very tragic case. A group of close family friends have arrived from London to be by their side and their brother and parents from Maharashtra are organising their travel from India," he told PTI.
"The Indian embassy is trying to expedite the travel arrangements and we remain in constant touch with the local authorities," he said.
He later issued a message on Twitter thanking Iceland President, Gudni Th. Johannesson, for his call to convey his "deepest condolences".
"Icelandic authorities have assured visa on arrival for relatives from India," he said.
The holidaymakers from the UK included two couples in their thirties and three children, aged around 10 months old, eight and nine. While the youngest girl was killed on the spot, the other children remain in hospital.
According to local reports, the two adults killed in the crash were the wives of the two British Indian brothers.
Chief Superintendent of South Iceland Police Sveinn Kristjan Runarsso confirmed the four survivors have been taken to hospital with serious injuries and that "we haven't been able to talk to them about what happened".
The crash site was described as "horrifying" by tour guide Adolf Erlingsson, who was among the first on the scene with two police officers.
"The car was totally smashed up after flying off the bridge and plunging down there," he told Icelandic radio station Bylgjan.
"The car seemed to have hit the ground many metres from where it stopped. We struggled getting everyone out," he said.
Police officers have said that humidity could have made the surface slippery, but it remains unclear what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
Temperatures were around freezing at the time of the accident, which occurred hours before the North Atlantic island saw sunrise at nearly 11.30 am local time.
The vehicle the family were travelling in slammed through a railing while crossing a high single-lane bridge over the Nps river at Skeidararsandur.
The bridge is described as "really narrow" and the vehicle plummeted on to the dry riverbed below and landed on its roof.
Iceland's national ring road, also known as Route 1, is popular among tourists from around the world and the site of the crash was near Skaftafell in the south-east of the country, which is made up of mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and beaches.
Of the 18 people who have died in traffic accidents in Iceland this year, half of them have been foreign nationals.
The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are supporting the family of several British nationals who were involved in a road traffic accident in Iceland and are in close contact with the Icelandic authorities."
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
