38 drown as bus falls into canal in central India

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) - At least 38 people were drowned and more than a dozen were missing when a bus carrying them plunged into a canal in central India on Tuesday, a state minister said.

The driver of the ill-fated bus apparently lost control and it plunged from a bridge into the Sharda canal in the Madhya Pradesh state. The mishap occurred in the Sidhi district, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) east of the state capital Bhopal.

According to local police, the bus, carrying 55 passengers, was en route from Sindhi to Satna town.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Tulsiram Silawat, Madhya Pradesh’s water resource minister, said: “I am constantly in touch with the officials at the site. They have recovered 38 bodies so far.”

According to an official statement, a team of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) personnel has reached the site for a rescue operation.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said SDRF teams and local authorities are conducting the operation to find the missing passengers.