Over 76 dead in Indian bus accident

NEW DELHI—More than 110 people were feared dead after two packed passenger buses skidded off bridges in southern India amid heavy rains, police and officials have said.
The bridges had been swamped by water due to the worst rains in years, which have turned some parts of the state of Tamil Nadu into lakes.
Television footage showed one bus upended in a fast-flowing river.
A police spokesman at the scene of one of the accidents near the town of Pattukottai in remote Thanjavur district said at least 49 people died when a bus plunged into a canal.
“Of the 49 bodies recovered there are two bodies which are not identified. The rest have been handed over to the relatives,” the spokesman said.
“Bodies are being recovered as far as 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the spot where the bus was washed away,” he said.
Crowds of frantic relatives and friends stood on riverbanks watching as police and fire rescue teams searched for more bodies.
“It’s hard to estimate the number of people who were in the bus. Eighty people is only a fair estimate,” he added. He had no figures on the number of survivors.
A police official said that 63 people drowned at the site of a second accident in Ramanathapuram district’s Sanavelli area, where a bus was washed away by flood waters from the swollen Sirugani river.
“The bus was caught on the road by the flood waters. Sixty-three passengers died and 22 were rescued by the police and public,” M. Alagu, inspector of police special branch, told reporters from the site.
He added that 22 bodies, including those of two children, had been recovered from the bus.
The passengers were travelling to a temple town, the report said, adding the river was high due to unseasonal rains lashing parts of coastal Tamil Nadu.
The rains, caused by low pressure in the Bay of Bengal, have been battering the state for several days, causing road and rail chaos and widespread flooding in many areas. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in coastal districts. Rescuers waded through muddy water up to their necks, pushing people who could not walk in black tyre tubes. A coastguard helicopter was dropping food packets to marooned villagers, a district official said.—Agencies