RANCHI At least 16 people, including four women, were killed and 25 others injured in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a truck transporting gas cylinders in Jharkhand’s Pakur district on Wednesday morning.
“The injured have been referred to Dhanbad, Dumka and Patna as well. At least three of them are critical. Till now 16 casualties have been confirmed,” said Pakur superintendent of police Hrudeep P Janardhanan.
Of the 16 dead, 14 were identified, of which five hail from Sahebganj district, three each from Dumka and Pakur, two from Deoghar and one from West Bengal. Identity of two of the dead was yet to be established.
The bus, coming from Barahwa, was bound for Jasidih when it collided head-on collision with the truck carrying LPG cylinders near Kamardiha village on Sahebganj-Gobindpur highway under Amrapara police station.
Chief minister Hemant Soren directed Pakur district officials to provide all possible relief to the accident victims. Pakur deputy commissioner Varun Ranjan said an ex gratia of ₹1 lakh was provided to dependents of each of the deceased.