Fifty-four persons of a marriage party met their watery grave when their bus fell into a pond at Sarupeta in lower Assam's Barpeta district late Wednesday night, injuring 27 others, including the groom.
Barpeta Police Superintendent Debraj Upadhyay told PTI over phone from the site Thursday that the bodies of 25 women, 20 men and nine children had been recovered from the deep pond.
The bus from Roha near Sorbhog was on its way to the wedding venue at a village near Sarupeta when it skidded off a muddy village road and rolled into the deep pond at around 11 pm, Upadhyay said.
The tank is being emptied of water by four water pumps as the police is looking for more bodies with the groom's relatives claiming there were 80 people on board the bus.
The police and Central Reserve Police Force along with local villagers were working continuously to salvage more bodies Thursday, he said.
Army personnel from a nearby camp rendered a helping hand Wednesday night to fish out the bodies and salvage the bus, besides rescuing 25 people including the bridegroom and his mother.
One of the survivors said that he broke the window of the bus to jump out and also pull out the seriously injured groom and his mother.
As initial attempts to salvage the bus with ropes failed, two cranes were procured from nearby Bongaigaon district and the vehicle was pulled out of the water.
The groom, who was in a critical condition, was sent to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital, while the rest were admitted to hospitals at Pathsala and Sarupeta, he said.
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