5 killed in ambulance-truck collision in Kushtia

Five passengers of an ambulance were killed and another injured in a head-on collision with a truck on the Kushtia-Khulna highway in Sadar upazila of Kushtia this afternoon.

The deceased were identified as Mofiz Uddin, 57; his wife Arbi Khatun, 45; their son Mohammad Ifat, 27; Mofiz's brother-in-law Mohammad Ali of Jashore; and ambulance driver Tipu Sultan, 38, of Narail, said police.

Atiqul Islam, assistant superintendent (Sadar circle) of Kushtia, said the incident took place at Niyatmore on the road around 3:30pm while Mofiz along with family members and relatives in the ambulance were returning home in Jashore from Pabna Mental Hospital.

Mofiz with his whole family and two brothers of his wife Arbi Khatun went to the mental hospital to receive Arbi, said the ASP.

The police official said the Jashore-bound ambulance collided with a fertilizer-laden truck of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) of Kushtia coming from the opposite direction, leaving all five dead on the spot.

Police recovered the bodies and sent them to Kushtia General Hospital, our Kushtia correspondent reports quoting Atiqul Islam.

Mofiz's another brother-in-law Mohammad Insan Ali, who received severe injury from the incident, is now undergoing treatment at Kushtia Medical College hospital, added the ASP.