Thaindian News

Osmanabad (Maharashtra), Feb 2 (IANS) An ambulance carrying the body of a 61-year-old man crashed into a bus, killing four more people, including the man’s widow, a family friend and two drivers near Vadgaon early Thursday, police said.

The ambulance was going to Aurangabad when it rammed into a State Road Transport Corporation (ST) bus on the busy Solapur-Osmanabad highway.

It was carrying the body of Sarjerao Lokhande, 61, of Aurangabad, who died while on a pilgrimage in Karnataka, an official of Osmanabad police control room said.

Among the victims of the bus-ambulance crash were the widow of Lokhande, a family friend and two drivers of the ambulance. The drivers belonged to Karnataka, inspector Anant Rathod of Osmanabad control room said.

Besides, 11 people travelling on the Osmanabad-Satara Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (ST) bus, and four other passengers in the ill-fated ambulance were injured.

“All have been rushed to Osmanabad district civil hospital and the condition of one is reported to be critical,” Rathod told IANs.

The accident took place around 6.45 a.m. near Vadgaon in Osmanabad district, around 465 km south-east from Mumbai.

Those killed in the accident have been identified as: drivers B. V. Ganesh and K. Vijaykumar, both from Hossur in Karnataka, Shakuntala S. Lokhande (60), widow of the deceased, and family friend Dagdu V. Wani (62).