Five Nepal nationals, who were returning from Prayagraj after attending the Maha Kumbh, died as a car they were in hit a divider and overturned in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district on Saturday. The incident took place on the Madhubani four-lane bypass when the speeding SUV tried to avoid crashing into a biker performing stunts.

The impact of the car hitting the divider was so severe that the Scorpio SUV flipped over five times.

Visuals of the incident show the car completely crushed and the windows shattered. As the car flipped, one of its tyres broke and entered the vehicle. Several blood stains can also be seen on the SUV.

There were nine people in the car – out of which five died on the spot and four others have been critically injured, officials said. The victims have been identified as Archana Thakur, Indu Devi, Mantarni Devi, Bal Krishna Jha, and the driver. The injured are Manohar Thakur, Srishti Thakur, Kamni Jha, and Devtaran Devi. 

All of them are from Nepal, officials added.

Eyewitnesses described the scene as chaotic, with distressing screams echoing from the crash site. According to them, some men were performing students on a bike on the four-lane. The car, which was speeding, could have hit one of the bikers. However, to avoid it, the driver turned the wheel and hit the divider.

As the car flipped, the bikers fled the scene.

Police said that the airbags of the vehicle did not open, causing further damage to the victims and the car.

“Five persons lost their lives on the spot while we have rescued four others from the vehicle. Locals helped in removing the injured from the car and sent them to a nearby hospital. They have been taken to Shri Krishna Memorial Medical College (SKMCH) for treatment. Their condition is reported to be critical. We have informed the Nepalese authority about the accident. We are also trying to contact the family members of the victims,” a senior official said.

At least 16 people were initially transported to nearby hospitals

A 12-year-old in the US was severely injured after her mother accidentally ran her over on her first day of school. According to People, the incident took place on Monday morning outside Boker Middle School in Florida. The mother, 30, was dropping her daughter off when she accidentally hit her. The child was airlifted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg with critical injuries, cops said. 

According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), the 12-year-old had dropped some markers and pens and bent down to pick them up from under the vehicle. Tragically, however, the mother did not realise what her daughter was doing and began to drive off, running over her. “She immediately stopped when she heard her child screaming,” FHP Trooper Kenn Watson said, per People. 

A Sarasota County Schools spokesperson confirmed the accident, saying, “A parent accidentally hit their child as the parent was dropping the child off on the street”. “The school district encourages all families to follow district & school safety protocols and use the designated student pickup and drop off areas on school campuses,” they added. 

Separately, Mr Watson said, “Here we are, day one, and we’ve already had a tragedy. We’re hoping this does not happen again, but we have to remember to have that good spatial awareness when you are anywhere around a school zone and most certainly when you are letting your kid out of your vehicle”. 

“You want to avoid being in a hurry and dropping off our kids in the turn lane when we should be directly in front of the school,” he continued, adding, “This is a tragedy that one hundred percent could have been avoided by simply paying a little more attention and not being in a hurry.”

Also Read | 24-Year-Old US Man Arrested For Giving 4-Month-Old Baby Gasoline To Drink

In a message to families, Booker Middle School principal LaShawn Frost said the crash “serves as a reminder of the importance of following our established safety procedures”. 

“Please remember that students should not be dropped off in the middle of Myrtle Street,” the principal said. “This practice poses a significant risk to our students’ safety and the safety of others on the road,” he added. 

On Tuesday, officials said that the child is in stable condition. “Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital has advised that the 12-year-old victim has been upgraded to ‘Stable’ as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time,” said Mr Watson. 

Keonjhar (Odisha):

Six people, including four women, died in a tragic accident on Wednesday evening in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Their car was crushed between two trucks on National Highway 520 in the Champua area.

Police report that the car was traveling behind a truck that suddenly braked. The car rammed into the back of the truck. A second truck following too closely then collided with the car from behind, causing the fatalities. All six occupants of the car, who were all family members, died at the scene.

The bodies have been sent to the hospital for autopsy.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dhanbad:

Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi’s brother-in-law died in an accident in Dhanbad on Saturday. Rajesh Tiwari and his wife Sabita Tiwari, the sister of Mr Tripathi, were driving from Bihar’s Gopalganj to Kolkata when the accident occurred on the Delhi-Kolkata NH-19 a little after 3 pm.

Tiwari died on the spot while his wife remains critical.

The highway crash was captured on CCTV. The Maruti Swift that Tiwari was driving whizzed past a woman waiting to cross the road and crashed into a divider as he lost control of the car, showed the footage from the site of the accident.

Ms Tiwari was taken to Shahid Nirmal Mahato Medical College in Dhanbad after the accident, and is currently under observation at the hospital. She has suffered a serious head injury, a CT scan has confirmed, according to the doctors.

The relatives of the Tiwaris had said that Mr Tripathi, the Mirzapur star, has been informed.

Nine men were killed after the van they were travelling in was rammed by a speeding truck in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar on Saturday night, police said. 

The group of 10 was returning from a wedding in Madhya Pradesh’s Khilchipur when the accident took place.

While three of the men were killed on the spot, six others died during treatment at the hospital.

After the accident, the driver of the truck fled the scene but was detained later.

Police are questioning him. Further investigation is on.

Gurugram:

A 27-year-old woman succumbed to injuries after she was allegedly hit by an SUV while riding a bicycle in the Sector 53 area here, police said on Tuesday.

An FIR has been registered against the unknown SUV driver who immediately fled the spot in his vehicle, they added.

The dead has been identified as Nasima Khatoon, a native of Assam. She died during treatment at AIIMS, Delhi, the police said. According to a complaint filed by the woman’s husband Aminul Haq, the accident took place around 6.30 pm on Sunday when Khatoon was returning home from work on a bicycle.

While crossing the Golf Course Road, a Mahindra SUV car coming from behind hit her bicycle. The driver immediately fled the spot in his car, the police said citing the complainant.

Khatoon was seriously injured and was taken to a private hospital. When her condition did not improve, she was referred to Delhi’s AIIMS hospital where she died during treatment on Monday night, Haq added in his complaint.

Haq said he and his wife hail from Dhubri in Assam. They were living on rent in the Saraswati Kunj area here for the last seven months and Khatoon worked at a printing press in Sector 54.

Based on the husband’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the unidentified SUV driver under Sections 279 (rash driving), 304-A (death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal Code at Sector 53 Police Station on Monday, the police said.

A senior police officer said that the registration number of the SUV has been identified and efforts are underway to trace the accused. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Melbourne:

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Monday he would be “happy to reopen” the search for flight MH370 if “compelling” evidence emerged, opening the door to a renewed hunt a decade after the plane disappeared.
“If there is compelling evidence that it needs to be reopened, we will certainly be happy to reopen it,” he said when asked about the matter during a visit to Melbourne.

His comments came as the families marked 10 years since the plane vanished in the Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard.

“I don’t think it’s a technical issue. It’s an issue affecting the lives of people and whatever needs to be done must be done,” he said.

Malaysia Airlines flight 370, a Boeing 777 aircraft, disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found and the operation was suspended in January 2017.

About 500 relatives and their supporters gathered Sunday at a shopping centre near the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for a “remembrance day”, with many visibly overcome with grief.

Some of the relatives came from China, where almost two-thirds of the passengers of the doomed plane were from.

“The last 10 years have been a nonstop emotional rollercoaster for me,” Grace Nathan, a 36-year-old Malaysian lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, 56, was on the flight, told AFP.

Speaking to the crowd, she called on the Malaysian government to conduct a new search.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke told reporters that “as far Malaysia is concerned, it is committed to finding the plane… cost is not the issue”.

He told relatives at the gathering that he would meet with officials from Texas-based marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which conducted a previous unsuccessful search, to discuss a new operation.

“We are now awaiting for them to provide suitable dates and I hope to meet them soon,” he said.

An earlier Australia-led search that covered 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 square miles) in the Indian Ocean found hardly any trace of the plane, with only some pieces of debris picked up.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Buxar:

Coaches can be seen strewn on both sides of the track, a few of these several feet away, in Raghunathpur, a non-descript town in Buxar district of Bihar where the North East Express derailed.

Four AC coaches, all of which have jumped the rails but remained coupled, form a scary serpentine pattern with shattered window panes serving as a telltale sign.

The guard of the Assam-bound train, Vijay Kumar, recalls having fallen unconscious from the impact of the derailment.

“I was busy with my paperwork when I realized that the driver suddenly applied brakes. This was followed by a few jerks, and I fainted. Later, I found myself in the adjoining fields, where villagers were sprinkling drops of water on my face,” said Kumar, who has sustained minor injuries.

With the rescue of passengers complete, the focus is now on restoration.

The entire area has been cordoned off as villagers watch gigantic cranes and machinery used for cutting through metal at work. They feel that, given the scale of devastation, it may be several days before the tracks are again fit for traffic.

Railways, though, insist that it will not take that long.

Mahendra Yadav, a 64-year-old resident of Madhepura district who was traveling in an AC 3-tier coach, recalled amid sobs, “It was an experience I may never forget. Suddenly, all of us started getting tossed off our berths by a force that none of us could fathom.” The elderly person is full of gratitude for local residents who had rushed to the spot and pulled out most of the passengers from the toppled coaches by the time the railway and other administrative officials arrived with assistance.

In an adjoining coach, Mohd Nasir and Abu Zayed, both residents of Kishanganj district, were fast asleep, perhaps enjoying pleasant dreams of a vacation at home, away from the hustle and bustle of Delhi.

As fate would have it, only one of them survived to witness the horror, which may remain a memory etched in his consciousness for some time to come.

“We had boarded the train on Wednesday morning. It was a tiring journey, and after having an early dinner, we went to sleep. The train would have reached Kishanganj early the next morning. Suddenly, I felt a jolt and got thrown off my berth. It took a while before I could understand what had happened,” said Nasir, with shock writ large on his gaunt, bespectacled face.

While Nasir thanked his stars for escaping with minor bruises in the accident, which saw virtually the entire train being thrown off the rails, his eyes turned moist as he recalled rescue personnel taking away the body of Abu Zayed, who is in his 20s, informing him that his friend was dead.

Ishalaur Rehman, a resident of Delhi, recalled how 10-15 people fell on him after a sudden jolt.

“I am lucky to have survived the accident with a minor injury to my hand. But what I saw was unforgettable. I boarded the train at Prayagraj for New Jalpaiguri. I was sitting on my seat, but suddenly, there was a deafening sound, and we were thrown from our seats. I could only hear screams all around,” he said.

“Locals took us to the nearby health center. Now, I am fine,” he added.

Twenty-three coaches of the train, on the way to Kamakhya in Assam from Delhi’s Anand Vihar station, derailed near Raghunathpur on Wednesday night.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)