A police official said one of the occupants has been detained. (representative)
Berhampur:
An 11-year-old girl and two women were killed and 15 others injured, including three seriously, when an SUV drove into a wedding gathering near the bride’s home in Odisha’s Ganjam district, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place late on Tuesday night in Mandiapalli in the Gopalpur area, when 50 people, mostly female relatives of the bride, stood at the roadside waiting for the groom, said Sarada Prasana Das, chief of the Gopalpur police station.
The victims were identified as Sanjukta Reddy (23) from Mandiapalli, Sapna Reddy (21) from Chhatrapur and Bharati Reddy (11) from Lanjipalli town in Berhampur, a senior police officer said.
After the incident, the driver of the vehicle and some other occupants fled leaving the vehicle, which has a Chhattisgarh registration number, Berhampur Sadar Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Siba Shankar Mohapatra said.
He said one of the occupants was detained and efforts are underway to apprehend the rest.
Three seriously injured people were referred to Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Visakhapatnam, while the remaining 12 injured are being treated at the MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.
Among the injured are two cameramen who record the course of the wedding.
“While we were setting up the area, a speeding SUV suddenly rammed into the meeting. The driver may have been in a drunken state,” said one person who was being treated at a hospital.
Prime Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed grief over the incident and announced compensation of Rs 3 lakh each for the families of the victims. He hoped for a speedy recovery for the injured.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also lamented the death.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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