Four MBBS students of Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad were killed in an accident on NH65 at Surayapalem on the outskirts of Vijayawada as the private Volvo bus they were travelling in rammed into a tree.
As many as 31 other students were injured in the mishap last night. Driver of the bus, who the injured students alleged was in an inebriated state, was also killed in the incident.
The students were returning to Hyderabad in the specially-hired bus from Amalapuram in East Godavari district when the accidents took place around midnight.
The deceased students have been identified as M Pranay and Rajaram (fourth year) and Giri Laxman and M Vinay Teja (house surgeons).
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"We suspected that the driver was drunk and we called the bus operator to change the driver. The operator assured us that the driver would be changed at Vijayawada but that did not happen. The drunk driver was driving the vehicle at a high speed when it rammed into a roadside tree," some of the injured students, who were being treated in a private hospital in Vijayawada, said.
He said the Telangana government would bear the medical expenses of the injured students.
"We will take necessary action against those responsible for the accident after an inquiry," the minister said at the hospital.
Chief Ministers of AP and Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao, expressed grief over the accident.
In another accident, six persons from Bengaluru were
killed in a road mishap at Chadragiri Fort near Tirupati when the tempo they were travelling in collided with a lorry last night. Another 10 persons were injured in the incident.
The deceased were residents of Yelahanka and Dinaharahalli areas in Bengaluru, they said.
AP Health Minister K Srinivasa Rao and Transport Minister S Raghva Rao expressed sorrow over the two accidents and said better medicare would be provided to the injured.