Odisha: Narrow escape for 65 tourists after bus driver suffers heart attack on the wheel

Officials said the passengers from Kolkata were on the way to Panchalingeswar shrine in Nilagiri area of Balasore when driver Sk Aktar suffered a massive heart attack

At least 65 tourists from West Bengal had a narrow escape on Tuesday morning when their bus driver suffered a heart attack while driving them to a temple in Odisha’s Balasore, but stopped the bus immediately before falling unconscious.

Representational image.

Officials said the passengers from Kolkata were on the way to Panchalingeswar shrine in Nilagiri area of Balasore when driver Sk Aktar suffered a massive heart attack.

“Despite the chest pain, the driver stopped the bus by the roadside before falling unconscious. The passengers called the locals and rushed him to a Nilagiri hospital where the doctor pronounced him dead,” a police official said.

One of the locals said when the bus suddenly stopped, he thought the tourists wanted a break. “But after a closer look, we saw the driver lying senseless in his seat. We called an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital, where the doctors announced him as dead,” said Mihir Behera, a person from Patapur village.

The deceased bus driver hailed from Howrah in West Bengal.