Close shave for 30 people as bus hangs from bridge after hitting guard wall in Odisha

It was a close shave for 30 people as their bus hit the guard wall of a bridge over the Mahanadi in Odisha's Cuttack district on Tuesday, and remained hanging for quite some time before they were rescued, police said.

The accident happened on the Jatimundia-Subernapur bridge around 10:30 am when the bus was going to Bhubaneswar from Angul, said Kabuli Barik, the inspector-in-charge of Banki police station.

The driver of the bus Srikant Behera said, "Though I applied the brakes and tried to control the bus, it hit the guard wall of the bridge. The front two wheels of the bus were hanging. People who were travelling in other vehicles stopped to bring out the passengers of the bus."

Barik said all the passengers, including the driver, were rescued safely.

"No one was severely injured in the accident," he said, adding that the bus was later removed from the bridge.

The bus had left Angul at 7:45 am and was supposed to reach Bhubaneswar at 12 pm.

If the bus had moved any further, it would have fallen off the bridge, resulting in a major mishap, said a local.