17 killed in road accidents in Northeast

Shillong, May 18 (UNI) Altogether 17 people were killed and 48 injured, some of them critically, in road accidents in Meghalaya and Nagaland today.

While ten people were killed and 35 injured in Meghalaya's Mawkajem village, seven were killed and 13 injured in Nagaland's Tseminyu town when the buses carrying them fell into deep gorge.

In the Meghalaya accident, police said the toll might rise as most of the injured were in a critical condition, while many were still trapped inside the bus, which was en route to Tynriang near the Indo-Bangla border from Laitlyngkot village in East Khasi Hills district.

The incident took place when the bus after colliding head on with a car skidded off the road and cascaded down.

All the injured had been admitted in Shillong Civil Hospital and at Pynursla Community Health Centre.

In the Nagaland accident, the bus belonging to the Nagaland State Transport (NST) was en route to Dimapur from Wokha.

The accident occurred when the driver of the bus was negotiating to give side to a car to avoid collision, but due to soft earth at the road side, the vehicle rolled down a 400-mt-deep gorge.

The injured were rushed to hospital, where the condition of some was stated to be critical.

Senior district officials rushed to the spot to assess the situation.

UNI