Four bodies extricated from Arunachal accident site, four more to be recovered

ITANAGAR: Police on Sunday extricated the bodies of four persons out of the total eight who died on Saturday in an accident on the Bhalukpong-Bomdila road in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

"We have managed to extricate four bodies so far. An operation is on to lift the other bodies from the area where the accident occurred," West Kameng SP T T Lama said.

Eight persons died on the spot while eight others miraculously escaped when a pick-up van carrying them skidded off the road and fell into an 800-feet deep gorge on Saturday evening. All the passengers in the vehicle were porters of the Army Special Corps battalion stationed at Tawang.

The injured were admitted to Bhalukpong Primary Health Centre on Saturday and were evacuated to Tezpur on Sunday morning, the SP said. The driver said the accident occurred because he fell asleep at a critical turning point.

Two locals spotted them after hearing the screams of the wounded driver. They managed to bring him up to a point about one km ahead of Sattle near Zero point. They called other passers-by for help and alerted the Army, Bhalukpong, Rupa and Bomdila police stations.

The SP's private security officer Naik Passang Dorjee along with the drivers of two private vehicles went down the gorge. They located the eight surviving passengers of the total 16 travelling in the van.

Sunday 21 October 2012

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