Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: A schoolboy jumped to his death from a running vehicle near his school gate this morning as the driver of the bus did not stop there.

The deceased, Augustine Behera, was a student of Class VI at Gundima Model School in Mohana block of Gajapati district. The 11-year-old boy was on his way to school at Gundima from Katama, about 40km away, in a four-wheeler.

'We have seized the vehicle and are probing the case. The driver of the vehicle has fled from the spot immediately after the incident. We are trying to nab him,' said inspector in-charge of Mohana police station Debabrata Chakra.

The vehicle used to shuttle between Gundima and Katama every day.

Augustine's father Ashok Behera, a small-time farmer, said his son took the vehicle everyday as the school did not have any hostel and there was no passenger bus between Gundima and Katama.He further said that though there were Odia-medium government schools in their village, his son took the trouble of going to Gundima every day as he wanted to study in an English-medium institution.

Augustine was the youngest of Ashok's four sons. Ashok's wife died a few years ago. Irate local residents blocked the road in front of the school for several hours demanding compensation for Augustine's bereaved family members and immediate arrest of the car's driver.

Traffic was disrupted on the Berhampur-Raya-gada road for hours this afternoon because of the road blockade. Mohana block education officer Srujan Mallick, who is also the principal in-charge of the model school run by the state government, said that the institution was launched last year.

'As of now, there are no hostel facilities. We have informed the higher authorities about this problem. We hope a hostel for the girl students will come up by next year,' said Mallick.