Four people, including two female pedestrians, were killed and another critically injured on Wednesday morning when a bus of Asian University of Bangladesh, travelling against the flow of traffic, collided head-on with a battery-powered auto-rickshaw on the Mirpur embankment in Dhaka.
The collision occurred at approximately 7:30am in the Nawab-er-Bag area under the jurisdiction of Shah Ali Police Station.
According to police and Fire Service officials, the force of the head-on impact completely mangled the auto-rickshaw, killing four people on the spot.
Rescuers extracted the critically injured survivor, who was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
A unit from the Kalyanpur Fire Station responded swiftly to the scene to conduct rescue operations.
Talha Bin Jasim, media officer for Fire Service and Civil Defence, confirmed the four fatalities.
The deceased have been identified as the auto-rickshaw driver, Shafiqul, one of his passengers, and two female bystanders.
The precise identities of the three victims alongside the driver were not immediately established.
Sub-Inspector Ariful Islam of Shah Ali Police Station took custody of the bodies, which were subsequently transferred to the morgue at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examinations.
Law enforcement officers confirmed that the university bus has been impounded and its driver taken into custody.
As of Wednesday afternoon, formal legal proceedings were being prepared.
Shah Ali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Rajib said that preliminary inquiries indicate an illegal lane change and wrong-way driving caused the fatal crash, adding that a comprehensive investigation into the exact circumstances is ongoing.
