110 feared dead as 2 buses washed away by floods in India

Indian villagers watch as a navy helicopter hovers over the scene after an accident involving two passenger buses at Ramanathapuram, some 600km south of Chennai yesterday. More than 110 people were feared dead after two packed passenger buses skidded off bridges in southern India amid heavy rains.. PHOTO: AFP

The bridges had been swamped by water due to the worst rains in years, which have turned some parts of the state of Tamil Nadu into lakes.

Television footage showed one bus upended in a fast-flowing river.

A police spokesman at the scene of one of the accidents near the town of Pattukottai in remote Thanjavur district said at least 49 people died when a bus plunged into a canal.

"Of the 49 bodies recovered there are two bodies which are not identified. The rest have been handed over to the relatives," the spokesman said.

"Bodies are being recovered as far as 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the spot where the bus was washed away," he said.

Crowds of frantic relatives and friends stood on riverbanks watching as police and fire rescue teams searched for more bodies.

"It's hard to estimate the number of people who were in the bus. Eighty people is only a fair estimate," he added. He had no figures on the number of survivors.

A police official said that 63 people drowned at the site of a second accident in Ramanathapuram district's Sanavelli area, where a bus was washed away by flood waters from the swollen Sirugani river.

"The bus was caught on the road by the flood waters. Sixty-three passengers died and 22 were rescued by the police and public," M. Alagu, inspector of police special branch, told AFP from the site.