The bus on NH34 at Gajole on Monday. (Surajit Roy)

Malda, Jan. 23: A government doctor and five others were killed in Gajole this morning when a speeding 10-wheeler truck rammed headlong into the bus they were travelling in.

The truck was allegedly racing when it swerved and slammed into the right side of the bus coming from the opposite direction. Thirty-five people were injured in the accident on NH34 and 21 of them are undergoing treatment at the district hospital here.

State transport minister Madan Mitra reached the Malda hospital from Calcutta around 4pm and announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 each for the next of kin of the dead and Rs 10,000 each for the 35 injured people. He also declared that the cost of treatment would be borne by the government.

The South Bengal State Transport Corporation bus with 42 passengers had left Balurghat, South Dinajpur, at 5.30am and was bound for Durgapur in Burdwan district.

Malda superintendent of police Jayanta Pal said the bus driver was not at fault.

“The 10-wheeler truck was coming from the opposite direction at great speed. The driver lost control of the truck and it veered and slammed into the middle part of the bus’s right side. All those who died were seated in the middle part of the bus and that section was badly mangled,” said Pal.

Five of the victims died on the spot, while one died after being admitted to the district hospital here.

“The truck driver and helper fled after the accident. We are trying to apprehend them. The truck has been seized,” said Pal.

Among the victims was Kamal Kanti Kumar, a physician with the Gangarampur subdivisional hospital in South Dinajpur. The police said the 44-year-old doctor had been on his way to Durgapur along with son Anay Kumar.

Two of the deceased could not be identified till the evening. The other three victims were Bablu Das, 36, a resident of Kuldipmishra Colony in Malda, Jiban Barman, 45, from Kanthikandar in Gajole and Tohir Mondol, 55, of Patiram in South Dinajpur.

The district police chief said 35 people had suffered injuries and 21 of them were being treated at the Malda district hospital. ‘The condition of seven is serious,” he said.

Gajole is 35km from Malda and the accident occurred at 7am.

Kumar’s wife Soma arrived at the district hospital where their son Anay was admitted. She was accompanied by Manik Sengupta, a pharmacist with the Gangarampur subdivisional hospital. He said the news of Kumar’s death had not been broken to her yet.

Sengupta said they had rushed to Malda from Gangarampur, about 60km away, as soon as they had come to know about the accident from television channels. “Dr Kumar was very popular and hard working. He was taking his son to Durgapur for admission to Class VII in an English-medium school there. I do not know how I will tell his wife about the death,” said Sengupta.

The conductor of the bus, Sudipta Das, said the truck had been swaying from one side to another. He said passengers had been pulled out of the mangled bus by local people. “The injured were taken to the block hospital in Gajole in ambulances by the local people and police. Later, they were shifted to the district hospital in Malda,” said Das, who suffered minor injuries.