A 22-year-old food delivery boy was burnt to death in Salt Lake on Wednesday evening after a car that had caught fire following a collision crashed into his two-wheeler, police said.

The accident took place near a bridge connecting Salt Lake and VIP Road, near Kestopur.

“Two cars collided on the bridge. One of them was going at a high speed and veered off, hit a lamp post and footpath railing, and caught fire. The delivery man’s two-wheeler hit the railing and his clothes got stuck in the iron rails,” said Aneesh Sarkar, deputy commissioner, Bidhannagar police.

Three occupants of the cars and a pedestrian were injured.

The police identified the delivery agent as Soumen Mandal, 22, a resident of Hiranmaypur in South 24-Parganas. His trousers got entangled in the railing, preventing him from escaping the fire.

The police said they were checking CCTV footage to verify the sequence of events.

Three men from the two cars were rescued. Manas Agarwal, a GST advocate, was pulled out from the car that bore the brunt of the crash and was almost entirely gutted. His driver, Binod, fled, the police said.

From the second car, Nilanjan Basu and Achintya Chanda were rescued. Basu suffered multiple injuries, while Chanda was injured on the foot, the police said. A pedestrian, Aditya Jha, was also injured.

Several locals and eyewitnesses alleged a delay in police response and claimed rescue efforts were hampered in a busy traffic corridor. “He was hanging upside down from the railing, and his clothes were stuck. He burned to death in front of us,” said a witness.

Others accused the police of filming the burning vehicles instead of initiating rescue operations.

The police said fire tenders were delayed by a mob that pelted stones at emergency vehicles.

“After we rescued some occupants, fire tenders were obstructed by stone-pelting.
The situation turned volatile, and we had to wait for reinforcements. By the time additional forces arrived, one person had unfortunately died,” said deputy commissioner Sarkar.

The situation remained tense after the rescue, with television footage showing locals throwing stones at police. The cops fired tear gas.

“The mob was getting unruly. We had to fire a few rounds of tear gas to bring the situation under control. Traffic returned to normal soon after,” said a senior Bidhannagar police officer.