Mandi: 1 dead , 7 hurt as car rolls down hill

The car the students were travelling in skidded off the road and rolled down the hill into Beas river near Aut Tunnel on the Chandigarh Manali highway

An engineering student from West Bengal was killed and seven people were critically injured when the car they were travelling in skidded off the road and plunged into the banks of Beas river near Aut Tunnel on the Chandigarh-Manali highway in Mandi district on Sunday night.

Mangled remains of a car that met with an accident near the Aut tunnel on the Chandigarh-Manali highway on Monday. (PTI)

The deceased was identified as 22-year-old Sandipta Kundu. Those injured are Shahid Alam Aamir, 24; Kartik, 22; Ashok, 20; Kaloyan, 21; Saurabh, 23; and Bapa Mondal, 25.

The driver Rahul Malhotra, a resident of Una district, was also injured.

The accident took place around 11.30pm.

Mandi superintended of police (SP) Gurdev Chand Sharma said the students
were on an excursion trip to Manali and were returning to Delhi in a taxi. The driver lost control over the wheel as soon as the vehicle crossed the Aut tunnel. A police team rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation soon after the incident.

“Kundu died on the spot while the injured were rushed to a Community Health Centre (CHC), Nagwain, where they were provided first aid and later shifted to a hospital in Mandi,” said Sharma.

Further investigations are on, he added.