Road crash claims 5 lives in Joypurhat

At least five people were killed and another was critically injured when a CNG-run auto-rickshaw collided head-on with a truck in Joypurhat's Khetlal upazila yesterday.

Amjad Hossain, 50, Sirajul Islam, 60, Shahnaj Parvin, 50, and Nafiz Hossain, 20, were all residents of the upazila.

Nafiz was driving the CNG-run auto-rickshaw, while the others were the passengers, police said.

Photo: Collected

Quoting witnesses, police said the CNG-run auto-rickshaw was travelling from Joypurhat town to Khetlal upazila in the morning. Upon reaching Malipara area of Khetlal municipality, it collided with a speeding truck coming from the opposite direction.

Two people died on the spot, said Razibul Islam, officer-in-charge of Khetlal Police Station.

On information, members of the fire service rushed there and rescued them with the help of locals.

The four injured were taken to the upazila health complex, where three of them succumbed to their injuries.

OC Razibul said they seized the truck but its driver and helper had fled the spot.

Meanwhile, in Cox's Bazar, three people died and three others were injured in two road accidents on Sunday night and yesterday morning.

In Sadar upazila, two people on a motorbike died after being hit by a covered van in the Eidgah area around 7:00am yesterday.

Md Azim, 30, and Delwar Hossain Saydee, 28, died on the spot.

In a separate incident, one Hasan Ahmed, 35, was killed and three others were injured after a truck overturned on the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive Road on Sunday night.

(Our correspondents from Dinajpur and Cox's Bazar contributed to the report.)