BONGAIGAON, Oct 14 � Four persons including a child and a woman died on the spot and 25 others were injured when a bus in which they were travelling came in contact with two electrical cables on a road at No 3 Bhandara under Manikpur PS on Sunday night. The bus was travelling towards Tezpur from Kirtanpara in Bongaigaon district.
A contractor Nurul Haque was taking around 100 labourers to a brick kiln in Tezpur for working there in a hired ASTC bus bearing registration number AS-19/6565. The labourers are residents of Haldibari in Merer char area in the district.
The deceased have been identified as Nadam Ali (10), Takima Begum (20), Abdul Rashid Ali (20) and Gyasuddin (60). The injured were released after being provided first aid at Manikpur and Barpeta. The driver of the bus fled from the spot, police said.
As per an engineer of ASEB, the height of an electrical cable must be 7.5 metres from a road. But the local people of Bhandara alleged that the height of the wires, which had touched the bus through loaded utensils and bicycles on it, was less than the limit.
