Ambulance with 4 people washed away by floodwaters in Jharkhand

An Ambulance with four people including a paralysed patient in it was washed away by  the floodwaters of Koyal River near Sithio village in Lohardaga, around 100 kilometers from Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi on Wednesday.

Police said, six people were travelling in the ambulance to Ranchi.

“One manage to escape the flood waters by swimming to the shores while one was rescued by the rescue team. Four people are still missing,” said a police officer who reached the incident.

Police said, the vehicle developed a technical snag while crossing the bridge. The vehicle driver and a relative of the patient got down to push the vehicle across.

“The water level increased further and washed away the vehicle along with four people in it,” added the police officer.

A rescue team was sent to the incident site by the local administration with crane and ropes. Rescue team had managed to save only one.

“Before we could rescue the other four, the ambulance was washed away in the floods. A search operation is going on to rescue the four,” said Lohardaga Superintendent of Police Karthik S.

The four missing have been identified as Shanti Devi, 50, Kaushal Kishore, 28, Asha Priya, 18 and Rakesh Rajak, a school teacher and the patient.

Jharkhand has been receiving incessant rain from the last one week. The state has received average 138.6mm rainfall in the last four days. The state has recorded 492.3 mm rainfall against the normal rainfall of 467.2mm from June 1 to July 25.