UP: Multi-vehicle collision in Mirzapur leaves 11 dead, probe underway

Mirzapur (UP), Apr 22 (PTI): Eleven people, including children, were killed in a multi-vehicle collision triggered by a suspected brake failure in a truck in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district, police said on Thursday.

The accident was reported around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, following which police and fire brigade teams rushed to the spot and launched rescue operations with the help of local residents, Superintendent of Police Aparna Rajat Kaushik said.

The collision occurred on a road descending from the Dramandganj valley towards the Lasoda area. According to preliminary findings, a truck travelling downhill is suspected to have suffered a brake failure and rammed into another truck ahead of it.

A car travelling between the two trucks got crushed in the impact. In the chain collision that followed, another vehicle was also hit and caught fire, Kaushik said.

Rescue and relief work began immediately after the accident was reported, with police teams working alongside locals to pull out victims trapped in the mangled vehicles.

“So far, 11 deaths have been reported and efforts are underway to establish the identities of all the victims,” the SP said earlier.

According to officials, vehicles involved in the crash included a truck bearing a Bihar registration number and another registered in Madhya Pradesh. Among the cars caught in the collision, one belonged to Sonbhadra district and another to Mirzapur.

District Magistrate Pawan Gangwar told PTI that seven of those killed were residents of Mirzapur district, three were from Madhya Pradesh and one was from neighbouring Sonbhadra.

The deceased from Mirzapur’s Jigna area were identified as Shiva Singh (8), Sonam Singh (9), Piyush Singh (14), Pankaj Singh (40), Vandana Singh (43), Vishnu Singh (45) and Veena Singh (47).

Others who died in the accident included Kartikeya Singh (18) from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, Vikas Sharma (32) from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, Jai Prakash (27) from Sonbhadra district and Priyanka Singh (42) from Satna.

All the bodies have been sent to the mortuary and the victims’ families have been informed, Gangwar said, adding that there was no law and order issue at the site.

Police personnel remain deployed in the area while efforts are underway to restore normal traffic movement on the affected stretch. A detailed probe has been initiated to ascertain the exact cause of the accident. PTI ABN NB NB

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)