Mathura vehicle pile-up leaves behind mangled remains to sort, children looking for mother

Mathura, Dec 16 (PTI) Gulzari has made several rounds of multiple hospitals throughout the day, searching for her sister-in-law, Parvati. Caught up in the pre-dawn vehicle pile-up amid dense fog on the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura, she managed to save her two children, but her own fate remains unknown.

With hope fading by the hour, Gulzari frantically keeps looking for his sister-in-law among the mangled remains of the deceased brought to hospitals wrapped in black polybags.

Outside a post-mortem house in Mathura, he told reporters that according to his niece and nephew, their mother threw them out of a broken window of the flaming bus caught up in the pile-up, before collapsing with shards of glass in her neck. That was the last time they saw her.

According to police, at least 13 people died of burns, and 43 sustained injuries when the vehicle pile-up turned into an inferno. Eight buses and three smaller vehicles collided with each other in the thick fog around 4.30 am, a police officer said.

With most of the bodies charred beyond recognition, police are now forced to rely on DNA tests to identify the victims. Three deceased have been identified so far -- Akhilendra Pratap Yadav (44), of Prayagraj, and Rampal (75) from Maharajganj district, and Sultan Ahmed (62), a resident of Gonda district.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the remains will be matched with the DNA of people who are coming looking for their kin. He fears that the death toll may rise.

Mathura District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said arrangements are being made for the last rites of those whose bodies have been identified.

Some of the locals said that the sound of the collision could be heard kilometres away, and the bellowing flames could be seen from far off.

Dense fog made the rescue job difficult and lent little to no visibility to the responders. Amid the setting sun, the charred and mangled shells of buses and vehicles stood witness to the tragedy, as rescuers milled about to collect the bodies, or what was left of them. PTI COR NAV VN NSD NSD NSD NSD