india

Updated: Jun 20, 2019 23:53 IST

Bodies of three children were recovered during search operations after seven of them went missing when a mini-truck they were travelling in fell into a canal on Lucknow’s outskirts on Thursday. As many as 22 others in the truck that was ferrying them from a wedding swam to safety, said police.

Lucknow’s senior police superintendent, Kalanidhi Naithani, said the 22, including men, women and two children, managed to save themselves but the seven were missing until late Thursday.

“It appears that the driver of a pickup truck lost control of the vehicle while approaching a culvert over the canal. Because of this, the vehicle fell into the canal. Most of the passengers were sitting in the open trunk of the vehicle…,” said Naithani.

Investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the truck driver, Durgesh, was in an inebriated condition and missed a sharp turn near the canal.

The missing children were identified as Sachin Pandey 7, Sajan Pandey, 9, Sunny Pandey, 5, Saurabh Pandey, 7, Manisha Pandey, 4, Mansi Pandey, 6, and Aman, 10.

Teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) that included divers rushed to the scene and were carrying out search operation with the police’s help. The operation was on by the time this report was filed.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the accident and directed the police and SDRF to make all possible efforts for recovery of the missing children.

Inspector general (Lucknow zone) S K Bhagat and district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma rushed to the spot and inspected the progress of the search operation.

Two police teams were on the lookout to arrest the truck’s owner while its driver has been taken into custody.