Pune: A man hijacked a city bus in Pune early this morning and ran amok across crowded areas of the city, killing 9 people and crushing at least 40 vehicles, before he was stopped, the police have said.
Around 30 people injured have been admitted to three city hospitals. Police fear that more people might have been injured.
Santosh Maruti Mane, 39, reportedly got behind the wheel of the bus at the inter-state Swargate bus depot at around 8.15 am, when the driver was not on his seat. Mane is a licensed bus driver and an employee of the state transport department and so had access to a master key which he could use to drive any bus, Pune's Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar said. Mane is being interrogated and Ms Borwankar said the police would charge him with murder.
The police chief said Mane had reported for duty as usual at 7.30 am, and till yesterday had been regularly driving buses on Pune's roads. Today, he took the bus and began driving rashly, allegedly crushing two people at the bus depot, before driving out and across some of the busiest areas of the city. At that time of the morning, school children and office goers were out and the roads of Pune were crowded. As Mane sped down the wrong side, panicked people were seen pushing school children out of harm's way.
He drove for about half an hour, till 9.15 am, over 16 km, allegedly crushing people, hitting many vehicles and vendors, before he was finally stopped near the Nilayam theatre, another busy area, police said. They said as they attempted to stop the man, shoot orders were issued, but they managed to stop him without opening fire.
Stopping him was not easy. Police erected barricades but Mane knocked those down; he finally dashed against two vehicles and slowed down. People out on the roads helped the police chase him down and a college student, Sharif Kutti, finally managed to overpower Mane and take control of the bus.
The roads which the bus passed through were littered with mangled vehicles including cars and auto-rickshaws and overturned vegetable carts. Initial reports suggested that some of the persons who died may have been sleeping on the pavements.
There were no passengers on the bus, which was scheduled to travel from Pune to Satara later in the day.
