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Shillong, March 16: Seven persons were killed and 11 seriously injured when a overcrowded Tata Sumo plunged into a 300-foot gorge in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district this afternoon.
Reports coming in from the accident site said the highly overcrowded commercial vehicle, bearing registration number ML-04-B 3531, which ferries passengers to Assam’s Barak Valley, plunged into the gorge around 1pm. It was travelling from Ladrymbai to Kalain in Cachar district.
A Tata Sumo usually has the capacity to seat 8-10 persons. The vehicle in question was ferrying 17 people, excluding the driver. The accident took place at Kuliang Kmai village near Umkiang, around 120km from here.
The driver of the vehicle, identified as Danny Pohleng, was killed along with six others while all the remaining 11 passengers were seriously injured. The identity of the six deceased passengers was yet to be ascertained till the filing of this report.
As the vehicle plunged into a deep gorge, it took rescuers around four hours to complete the ferrying of the injured to the community health centre at Khliehriat, the district headquarters of East Jaintia Hills. Some of the injured were also shifted to Silchar in Assam. The bodies of the deceased have been sent to the Khliehriat community health centre for post mortem.
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