Maha: 32 Shirdi devotees killed as bus falls from bridge

Osmanabad (Maha), Jun 16: At least 32 devotees were killed and more than 20 injured, some of them seriously, when their bus fell off a bridge in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra in the wee hours today.

The victims hailing from Hyderabad were returning after a pilgrimage to Shirdi Saibaba Temple in Ahmednagar district, when the mishap occurred at 2:40 am, police said. The injured have been shifted to Solapur civil hospital. The deceased are yet to be identified.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has expressed grief over the incident and has directed Chief Secretary Pankaj Dwivedi to help those injured.

A team of medical and government officials from Andhra Pradesh has left for the spot to help the injured and make arrangements to coordinate with the Maharashtra state officials, Commissioner, Information and Public Relations RV Chandravadan said. "We need to get more details about the incident and number of casualties," he said.

The victims had boarded the private bus last evening from here. Meanwhile, anxious family members of the victims rushed to the office of the travel agency which was operating the bus at Lakadi-ka-Pul here to find out the condition of their relatives.

PTI