Police bus runs over seven in Bhopal

BHOPAL - A rashly-driven police bus, transporting prisoners, crushed seven people to death and injured several others here Saturday, police said.

The incident took place in the crowded Royal Market area on Hamidia Road in Old Bhopal when the police bus hit a minibus and then ran over the seven people, including a girl child and two students of the Government Medical College. Around a dozen people were injured.

Officials here at police headquarters said a probe has been launched into the accident though the driver Jai Prakash was reported to be absconding. Eye witnesses claimed that the driver was drunk and had lost control over the bus.

Following the incident, local people pelted stones at the police, who fired teargas to disperse the protesters.

The protesters were joined by students of the medical college who said they would end their agitation only after Home Minister Umashankar Gupta or Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself visited the accident site.

Senior police officials were camping at the accident site to cool down the protesters.