Damoh , A truck driver and cleaner were killed after their cement-laden vehicle fell into a river in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district, police said on Sunday.
The vehicle overturned and lodged in the river, and locals spotted it in the water the following morning and alerted the police. But the strong currents hampered rescue efforts, following which a team from the State Disaster Response Force was roped in. Around 1 am on Saturday, the 18-wheeler truck, carrying cement from Katni towards Damoh, lost control while crossing the river bridge on the Damoh-Katni road, crashed through the railing and plunged around 40 feet into the river, Kumhari police station in-charge Brijesh Pandey told reporters. The rescue operation was temporarily halted around 2 pm on Saturday.
He said that the police suspected that two people could be trapped inside the vehicle. Three specialised cranes were subsequently brought from Jabalpur by evening, following which the operation resumed, he said. Continuous rainfall in the area over the past three days had caused the river to flow strongly, making the rescue operation particularly challenging, police said.
