Kolkata, July 5 (Inditop.com) With two more of the injured succumbing Sunday, the toll in Saturday’s Howrah mini-bus accident has risen to 14, according to West Bengal police here.
Eight others being treated at several hospitals in Howrah and Kolkata are out of danger, said an officer manning the state police control room here.
Eleven bodies have been identified following Saturday’s accident which occurred when a speeding mini-bus skidded off a bridge and fell about 50 feet between two platforms of the Howrah railway station near state capital Kolkata. The dead include two couples – Najma Begum and Shaidul Mollah, and Pradip Das and Suparna Das – and a six-month-old baby.
Onlookers said the ill-fated bus was trying to outrace another when the driver lost control and the vehicle crashed through the concrete barriers of the bridge and plunged down between platforms 11 and 12 of the perennially busy Howrah station, the gateway to Kolkata.
The Bankim Setu on which the accident occurred connects Howrah town to the landmark Howrah bridge.
Railways Minister and main opposition party Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who visited the spot, has demanded compensation for the family members of the victims.
Rail operations were halted on several platforms and a number of long distance trains were also held up at the station, the biggest in eastern India.
