Shawdesh desk:

At least 19 people were killed and over a dozen injured as a bus fell into a roadside ditch at Kutubpur under Shibpur upazila in Madaripur district on Sunday morning.

Identities of the deceased could not be known immediately,

The accident took place minutes after 7:30am on Sunday, said Madaripur Highway Police assistant superintendent Ahsan Habib.

Shibchar Highway Police Station officer-in-charge Abu Nayeem Md Mofazzal Huq said that the Dhaka-bound bus of Emad Paribahan from Khulna met the fatal accident on Dhaka-Khulna highway at Kutubpur and left 17 dead on the spot and over one dozen injured.

On information, police and fire service and civil defence rescuers rushed to the spot, rescued the injured ones and sent them to hospital for treatment, he said.

He said that a number of injured people were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment and they came to know that two died there.

DMCH police outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia said that the hospital received a total of 10 injured patients from Madaripur until noon and two of them died.

He said that five of the victims were in critical condition.

Shibchar highway police station officials said that they recovered the bodies from the spot and would take appropriate measures to identify them and handing them over to their family members after completing the legal procedure.