JOYPURHAT, Bangladesh — A train plowed through a bus yesterday at an unmanned railway crossing in northern Bangladesh, killing at least 36 people and injuring about 15 others, an official said.
At least 20 bus passengers were killed at the scene of the accident in Joypurhat, while others later died of their injuries on the way or after being taken to a hospital in the district, 208 kilometers north of the capital, Dhaka, local official Amar Chand Banik said.
Rescuers cut through the debris of twisted steel to recover the body of a young girl, officials said. The accident happened at an unmanned village level crossing, police and witnesses said. The state-run Bangladesh Railways said a bus transporting mostly farm laborers rammed into a speeding inter-city Rupshah Express coming from the southern business hub of Khulna.
The overcrowded bus was totally destroyed as it was pushed onto the tracks by the train for over 150 meters before the engine came to a halt, a witness at the scene said. The twisted bus fell into a roadside ditch after being hit in the middle by the train, Banik said.
Police and firefighters recovered at least 20 bodies from the wreckage of the bus, according to the domestic news agency, the United News of Bangladesh.
The death toll was likely to rise because more bodies were believed trapped inside the crushed bus, the agency said, citing rescue workers.
A local police officer said the driver apparently missed or ignored a warning sign erected near the crossing, alerting pedestrians and vehicles to move carefully. The officer asked that he not be identified by name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Hundreds of residents thronged to the area, as many relatives searched for family members who had been on the bus.
The injured were being treated at hospitals, Banik said. Railway authorities ordered an investigation into the crash.
Dengue Fever
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has launched a series of programs to deal with Aedes mosquito, the carrier of dengue virus, which has hit Dhaka suburbs with the onset of monsoon affecting some 150 people.
But doctors at different city hospitals and residents in the affected areas said the DCC still has a lot to do to check the outbreak of dengue. According to medical sources in Dhaka yesterday, at least 105 dengue patients are currently being treated at different city hospitals.
DCC Senior Pest Control Officer Dr. Nasim-ur-Shiraj said some 142 people got infected by dengue in the city during the last 12 days.
“The situation now is not as worse as previous years. Only 40 percent of the patients suffering from high fever have so far been detected with dengue. The figure is much lower compared to previous years,” Dr. Shiraj said.
