Calcutta, July 24: A young engineer working with Tata Consultancy Services was crushed to death by a bus heading down the wrong lane before it smashed into a house in Salt Lake’s CJ Block tonight.

“The victim has been identified as Satya Sunder Rath, 25, an engineer with Tata Consultancy Services,” Bidhannagar East police station officer-in-charge Madan Mohan Pal said. “Rath hailed from Orissa and we are trying to contact his relatives,” Pal added.

The accident occurred around 9.30pm when the private bus, plying between Karunamoyee and Howrah on Route 71, apparently lost control and swerved off the road.

The bus, which had finished its last trip, was heading south, probably towards a petrol outlet in CJ Block, but it took the lane meant for north-bound vehicles.

Some people who had seen the bus earlier said the driver, who fled, appeared to have been intoxicated but the police declined to comment before investigations were over. A hunt is on for the driver.

The engineer was on his way to a rented flat in BK Block, around 15 minutes by foot from the accident spot, when the bus hit him.

The bus climbed the footpath, knocked down Rath and crashed through a 13-inch wall of the three-storied house (CJ 18).

Head smashed, Rath died on the spot. The body was taken to Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital and later sent for post-mortem. Suman Das, a colleague who shared the flat with Rath and was accompanying the engineer when the accident happened, has lodged a complaint against the unidentified driver.

Sanjeev Agarwal, a relative of the occupants of CJ 18, said: “There was a loud noise and the whole house shook when the bus hit it. Luckily, no one was hurt but it was a terrifying experience.”

Such was the force of collision that the bus almost entered the house despite the thick wall and a three-foot gap. The roof of the bus hit the balcony, damaging the structure. The metal grille on the boundary wall was twisted and ripped out. Portions of the wall itself collapsed on impact.

The bus was impounded by the police station and will be sent for a mechanical test.