At least nine people were killed and 27 others injured today when a bus driver in India went on a rampage, driving his vehicle into pedestrians and other vehicles, Agence France Presse reported.

Police said the driver hijacked the empty bus in a depot in the western city of Pune during the morning rush hour.

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According to witness accounts, he drove the bus at high speeds down the city's crowded streets, often on the wrong side of the road, and as children were heading to school.

At least 40 vehicles were damages during the man's 30-minute rampage, when the bus was stopped by two people who managed to board the moving bus, the BBC reported.

The driver, who was arrested at the scene, was named as 30-year-old Santosh Maruti Mane, an employee of the state transport department.

Pune police chief Meeran Borwankar told journalists that authorities were questioning the man to determine his motive.

"We don't know why the driver behaved like this. He just went berserk. We are trying to find out the reason.”

Sharif Ibrahim Kutty, a college student, was among the two people stopped the driver, 17 mile into his rampage.

According to the BBC, Kutty told local television that he began pursing the bus on foot after it ran over a woman and a child, and hit a car.

"There were two policemen on a motorbike, they fired at the bus trying to bring it to a halt, but the bullets missed the tires. The bus then ran over the policemen and broke through the police barricade ... Then he hit a car again, but before he could accelerate, I jumped into the moving bus. Another man came on board and we dragged the driver out of the bus."

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