The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Correspondent

At least 21 persons died and 85 others were injured in spearate rail and road accident in Sirajganj and Mymensingh in the last four days.

Sirajganj police and witnesses said, eight people were killed and 35 others were injured, six of them critically in a road accident on the Dhaka-North Bengal highway at Simantabazaar Swalpo Mahmudpur area, western side of Jamuna Multipurpose bridge in Sirajganj on Thursday.

Police and eyewitnesses said, the accident took place at around 10:50am, when a Kushtia -bound truck with around 70 passengers, returning home on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha from Dhaka, skidded off the road and fell into road side ditch. Six persons including a rickshaw-van puller and its passenger died on the spot and 37 others on board the truck were injured.

Of the injured, two more persons died on the way to hospital, while the rest were rushed to Sirajganj General Hospital, Dhaka and Bogra hospitals.

The dead have been identified as rickshaw-van puller Shah Alam, 28, son of Fazlar Rahman and Abdus Salam, 32, son of Sabed Ali of Paikosha village in Kamarkhanda upazila of the district. Identities of other deceased could not be known immediately.

Besides, six more were killed and 15 others were injured, when they fell into a river from the roof of a train at Koidanga area in ullapara on Thursday afternoon.

A teenage boy Nayeem died as a bus crushed him under its wheals at Talgachhi area on the Dhaka-Bogra highway on Saturday at 10.00am, while two unidentified persons died on the spot and 10 other were injured, as a bus collided head on with another truck at Soydabad area on the highway on Thursday.

The injured were taken to Sirajganj hospital and local clinics.

Police recovered the bodies and sent those to Sirajganj General Hospital morgue for autopsy.

In Mymensingh at least three persons, including a woman, were killed and 25 others injured in a road accident at Churkhai on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Sadar upazila here on Saturday. One of the dead was identified as Saheb Ali, 60. But the identity of the others could not be known.

Police and witnesses said the accident took place when a Dhaka-bound truck from Mymensingh carrying about 28 people fell into a roadside ditch as its driver lost control over the steering.

Of the injured, 22 were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital where three persons died.

The bodies were sent to morgue for autopsy. A case was lodged in this connection.