One person died and four others were seriously injured in a head-on collision between a speeding private bus and an SUV in the Gazole area of Malda on Sunday night.

All five were occupants of the SUV. The occupants of the bus — around 40 — escaped with minor injuries.

Sources said the bus was travelling from Balurghat to Calcutta, while the SUV was on its way from Gazole to Gangarampur. As the vehicles neared Jamtala on NH12, the SUV lost control and crashed head-on into the bus.

Bystanders rushed the occupants of the SUV to the state hospital in Gazole, where doctors pronounced Dipankar Barman dead. The four injured were referred to Malda Medical College and Hospital.

Boy drowns

A schoolboy went missing in the Bhagirathi river in Malda on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, his body was found.

Sources said Arup Das, 15, of Buraburitala Upar Bagan area of Malda and a Class X student of Malda Town High School, went to take a bath in the Bhagirathi with his friends on Sunday and was swept away. His friends raised an alert, and locals launched a search operation. Soon, police personnel and members of the civil defence department reached the spot. They engaged a speedboat and searched, but could not trace him. On Monday morning, the search operation resumed with speedboats and divers. Around 10am, two locals spotted the body in the river and recovered it.

Firearm arrest

Kaliachak police in Malda arrested one Jahangir Badsha with a gun and one round of live cartridge on Sunday.