At least 11 of a marriage party killed as van falls into open well after hitting bike

Nine members of a family among at least 11 persons were killed when a van hit a motorcycle before falling into an open well in a village in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday afternoon.

According to the police, the mishap occurred in village Kachariya near the Budha-Takarwat Phante under the jurisdiction of the Narayangarh police station.

Advertisement

The Maruti Eco Van was carrying about a dozen persons from the Ratlam district to the Antari Mata Temple in the Neemuch district after they attended a wedding ceremony in the Mandsaur district.

The van first hit a motorcycle head before veering into an agricultural field and subsequently fell into a well with no boundary wall or fencing as the driver lost control over the wheels due to the impact of the collision.

According to the Narayangarh police station In-charge Inspector Anil Raghuvanshi, nine family members traveling in the van were killed while the biker, Gobar Singh, also succumbed to his injuries he sustained in the accident.

A villager, identified as Manohar Singh, also died of drowning in the well while trying to rescue the occupants of the van trapped inside the well.

“The rescue operation is still being carried out after the clearing out the water of the well. We suspect at least one more body could still be in the water of the well, as the number of passengers in the van is said to be 14,” Raghuvanshi said late in the evening.

Four occupants of the van, including a three-year-old girl, who were injured in the mishap, were sent to a hospital for treatment.