In a massive road accident, 9 Kabbadi players died in Odisha

In a massive road mishap, nine Kabbadi players from Odisha were killed and15 others were seriously injured. A mini-truck in which the players were travelling fell off a bridge on Saturday evening near Surapalli in Sundargarh district.

The incident occurred around 4:30 pm on Saturday when the team from Sendhapur village in Bonai block was returning after playing a tournament in the neighbouring Dhundigaon.

Local residents rushed to the spot and commenced rescue operations.

The injured were taken to nearby Lahunipara health centre where three of them were declared brought death. Five players died in hospital. Among the injured, six were referred to Rourkela and four to Bonei sub-divisional hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Abhiram Kalo, 50, Dharanidhar Nayak, 60, Chandra Sekhar Pradhan, 18, all from Sendhapur village, Umesh Kisan, 25, and Gauri Chandra Kissan, 22, of Sangopinathpur village near Sendhapur.

The other deceased were yet to be identified. “We have recovered the truck from the site and rushed all the injured to the hospital,” said additional SP (Bonei) R B Panigrahi.

Expressing grief over the deaths, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced exgratia of Rs 1 lakh each for the next of the kin of the deceased.