At least 10 people were injured in a road accident in West Burdwan district on Sunday morning, when a tourist bus from Jamui in Bihar, heading towards Kolkata, collided with a coal-laden vehicle on the Panagarh bypass on National Highway 19, news agency IANS reported. The accident happened on the morning of Lakshmi Puja, and the collision was so intense that the front portion of the bus was mangled.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

According to locals and eyewitnesses cited by IANS, the tourist bus hit the back of the coal-laden vehicle, causing extensive damage to the bus and panic among passengers. Police personnel reached the spot and carried out rescue work with the support of local residents. The injured were rushed to Durgapur Sub-district Hospital, and some of them were said to be in critical condition. A bus passenger, Ravi Shankar Sau, told reporters that around 10 people were injured, a few of them seriously, and that passengers helped rescue the injured before police took them to hospital. Local Bengali video reporting from Panagarh carried the same details — 10 injured, admitted to Durgapur Subdistrict Hospital, some critical — and said passengers alleged the accident happened because of the bus driver's reckless driving; that allegation has not been established.

Source: Local Bengali video report, Panagarh (YouTube)

Traffic on the national highway was disrupted for some time after the crash and there was a traffic jam before police cleared the road, IANS reported. Police said they are probing the reasons behind the mishap, looking at all angles including the speed of the bus, whether the driver lost control of the vehicle, and whether the collision was triggered by other factors.

Local residents complained that a lack of surveillance on the bypass has led to reckless driving on the stretch, IANS reported. No deaths were reported in the initial reports, and further details on the condition of the injured were awaited.