A 53-year-old man heading to his office on a bike lost his right foot after being hit by a bus near Behala around 9am on Wednesday, police said.

The long-distance bus was on a hitting spree, and damaged a car and two motorcycles in a row, the police said.

According to police officers, Sujit Khamaru, a resident of Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas, was travelling along Diamond Harbour Road and was crossing the Sakherbazar Metro station when the accident happened.

“He was riding along the edge of the road and crashed into the median divider after being hit by the bus. His right foot got sandwiched between the bike and the concrete and was severed from the ankle,” said an officer of Thakurpukur police station.

Khamaru was initially taken to Vidyasagar State General Hospital; later, his colleagues shifted him to Belle Vue Clinic.

“He underwent surgery on Wednesday. We attempted to join the severed foot, but that did not happen. Another attempt will be made on Thursday,” a hospital official said.

Khamaru, who works with a tea company, is being given blood, sources in the hospital said.

Khamaru’s wife said she was too stressed to speak.

He was wearing a helmet and following all traffic rules, the police said.

The bus, the car and the two bikes involved in the crash were impounded, but the bus driver fled.

A search is on for the accused driver.

The other motorcyclist, Imran Ali Molla, 34, sustained relatively fewer injuries. He was taken to SSKM Hospital, from where he was discharged after treatment. No one inside the car was injured, police said.

At least three people were killed or maimed by buses in the city last week.

A 24-year-old woman riding pillion with a friend in a two-wheeler was hit by a bus, such that she was flung off the bike, fell on the road, and her right arm came under the wheels of the same bus. This was in New Town.

Doctors failed to revive her severed arm.

The very next day, a 60-year-old mother who was anxiously looking for her
son was killed in Salt Lake’s Sector V.

In north Calcutta’s Cossipore, a 15-year-old boy who was cycling to school died on BT Road after a bus hit him from behind.

According to police records, buses were involved in 15 per cent of the road accidents in Calcutta in 2024.

Commuters complain that buses stop in the middle of the road to pick up and drop off passengers, and often race other buses. The result is frequently disastrous.