Police personnel disperse a mob at the accident site. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, July 23: Irate people blocked Giri Road for nearly two hours after a loaded truck hit a 16-year-old schoolgirl from behind and killed her on the spot today afternoon.

The victim, identified as Manisha Mishra, was a Class X student of St Vincent Convent School. Manisha was returning home at Ayodhya Nagar after attending her first-term exam from the school, when the truck hit her bicycle from behind.

“She fell down on the road and the rear wheel smashed her head. She died instantly,” police said. The irate public nabbed the truck’s driver and helper, who were trying to escape. They beat both of them and handed over them to BNPur police.

“We have arrested the driver and the helper and seized the truck. We have sent the body for post-mortem,” said Berhampur sub-divisional police officer P.K. Patnaik.

Manisha’s father Gupteswar Mishra, a mechanical engineer, works as the director of a paper mill at Kurming in China. Manisha’s elder sister Lipsha works as a software engineer in Chennai. Her younger brother Adi studies in Class I at a public school.

“Her mother Ajita Mishra was inconsolable when she heard the news,” said Manisha’s maternal uncle Sasank Sekhar Mishra, who is the PWD’s assistant engineer at Bhanja Vihar.

The district administration has handed over Rs 5,000 from the Red Cross fund for cremation of the body. As the father and the sister of the deceased are expected to be in Berhampur tomorrow, the relatives have requested the body to be preserved at the hospital till tomorrow.

The victim’s teacher Jyotsna Das said: “Generally, the exam ends at 10am. But, she stayed up to 12.30pm in the school as there were extra classes for the Class X students,” said Das.

“We have restricted the movement of heavy vehicles in the city from 9am to 12 noon and 4pm to 9pm. The truck, which killed the girl, entered the city after 12 noon,” said Patnaik.

Members of the Democratic Students’ Organisation, led by its Ganjam unit president Kartik Mahanty, sat on a dharna at the accident site, demanding Rs 10 lakh compensation.

“We ended rasta roko after the sub-divisional police officer and the Berhampur sub-collector assured us to give Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victim’s family,” Kartik said.