Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Latest: Nizwa accident toll climbs to six as girl dies
NIZWA: Two children, who were injured on Thursday when an Indian School Nizwa bus met with an accident, are still fighting for their life, hospital medics said.
Five persons, including two Omani drivers, two Indian students and an Indian teacher, lost their lives in the accident. “Jaden Jaison and Siya Babu, both Class II students, are still battling for their life.
However, we are seeing a little progress in Nandika’s status. All are in the intensive care unit. We are trying our best to save them,” medics told the Times of Oman.
“Seven children have been currently admitted to the surgical ward. Surgeries are being conducted in turns,” medics added.
Thirty four children were brought to the hospital with injuries following the accident.
Also read: Call for laws to govern school bus drivers in Oman
The children were onboard the bus, which met with an accident when it was on its way to Nizwa on Thursday afternoon at around 1pm while returning from a trip to Bahla and nearby areas.
The school bus was hit by another vehicle carrying fish near Jibrin on way to Nizwa. Around 120 children had gone for the trip from the school in four buses.
Two Indian children, Mohammed Shammas and Ruya, one Indian teacher, Deepal Seth, and two Omani drivers lost their lives in the accident.
“My child, Hanna Aleena, was sitting on the teacher’s lap who died in the accident. When the bus was hit by another vehicle, she luckily got hold of a handle in the bus and so was not thrown away. But the teacher was thrown towards the window under the impact. My daughter has injuries on her hand and body. It will heal. But she has seen her teacher and her friends dying in front of her. What kind of trauma will it be?” Mohammed Nawab, father of Hanna, said.
Also read: Two children among 5 dead in Indian school bus crash in Nizwa
“I don’t know what to say. My child is safe. But we lost two children and a teacher. Two more are still fighting for their life,” Nawab added.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shammas was buried in Bisiyah, some 40 kilometres from Nizwa, near his home. Ruya and Deepal’s body was scheduled to be taken to the Royal Oman Police hospital in Qurum for embalming by Friday evening. Shammas and Ruya are from the South Indian state of Kerala. Deepal is from Pune in Maharashtra.
“I was told that my child had got injured in a bus accident. When I rushed to the hospital, I found that he had succumbed to his injuries. His mother is still in the shock. She is saying that if they bring back her child, she will take care of him,” Mohammed Shammas’s father Ahmed Kabir said.
Many parents recounted that following the incident, Omanis had rushed the injured children to the hospital in their vehicles.
“It was an awful situation in the hospital. I saw parents running here and there to know whether their child was injured in the accident or not. As we were not clear at that moment how many children were there in the bus or their names, we couldn’t give any details to the parents. It was an awful situation. Even the children didn’t have any ID cards,” Akilesh Kumar, a parent and also a senior staff member of the Nizwa hospital, who coordinated the rescue efforts, said.
On Friday evening, parents and teachers were allowed to have a final look at the bodies of Ruya and Deepal at the hospital. Many of them had been waiting in the hospital since the accident happened.
“How can we go when our children are fighting for life? We can’t leave the hospital. We will wait here and pray for them,” a group of parents said. Indian embassy officials and other social workers also reached Nizwa and were seen consoling the grieving parents and coordinating the repatriation process for the deceased.
