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57 killed as bus falls into river in Karnataka

Bijapur, January 10
Fifty-seven persons, including 18 women and two children, were killed when a state Road Transport Corporation bus fell into the Almatti dam canal at Nidugundi in Karnataka’s Bijapur district early this morning.

The bodies of all the victims of the ill-fated bus, bound for Chitapur district in Gulbarga district from Hubli, have been recovered, district and police authorities have said.

Nine passengers of the jam-packed bus swam to safety. Seven members of a family bound for Jewargi in Gulbarga district also died in the accident.

Four cranes were pressed into service to pull the bus out of the 15-foot deep canal, as hundreds of persons from surrounding villages gathered at the accident site, about 60 km from the district headquarters of Bijapur.

Rescuers had to break the window panes of the bus to take out the victims after two cranes could not pull the bus out of the river, prompting them to press two more cranes into the relief work, which was carried out after emptying the water in the canal.