Limbu at the hospital in Gangtok on Sunday. Picture by Prabin Khaling

Kalimpong/Gangtok, Aug. 17: Five persons have been missing after the Maruti Omni they were travelling in plunged into the Teesta near Rongpo last night.

Only one of the passengers, a 20-year-old-student, was found by local people who rushed him to Sir Tuthob Namgyal Memorial (STNM) Hospital in Gangtok, about 40km from the spot, with injuries. The injured Krishna Limbu is a resident of Simbole in West Sikkim.

The five missing are yet to be traced and police suspect that they might have been washed away by the rain-fed river. The Kalimpong police, however, launched a search operation with the help of the rafters based in Melli, but without much luck.

The accident is believed to have occurred 36km from Kalimpong around 8pm, when the vehicle coming to Rangpo from Upper Rongpo Forest Bazar, 12km from the accident site, failed to negotiate the bend as it approached NH31A and flew into the river about 20ft below. The police said the mishap could have occurred because of brake failure. Limbu, too, suggested that the brake fail could be the reason for the accident.

“I along with two of my friends had boarded the vehicle at Munsong Golai. As we approached the highway, I heard someone shout brake fail and in no time our vehicle was flying down into the river,” he told The Telegraph from his hospital bed in Gangtok.

Limbu, who is doing a one-year computer course at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Rongpo, said he managed to come out of the vehicle after kicking its door open. “I somehow swam to a rock in the river. Thereafter, I don’t remember anything. When I regained my senses, I found myself surrounded by local people at the same spot,” he added.

Residents and the police pulled Limbu out of the river and put him on a vehicle to Gangtok where he was admitted to STNM Hospital. A doctor attending on him at the hospital said the CT scan did not reveal any major injuries. “He should be fine in a few days,” the doctor added.

Limbu said he was going on an errand with his friends Vikram Mangar and Golden Rai, both students of the ITI. While Mangar hailed from Rabangla in South Sikkim, Rai was a resident of West Sikkim. Both of them are missing.

The police said the identities of three other missing persons have also been established. “The actual driver of the vehicle was Hari Pradhan, but at the time of the accident perhaps his friend Sanjay Rajbongshi was on the wheel. The fifth occupant of the vehicle was Sanjay Bishwakarma, a resident of Rangpo,” said the sources.