Panaji: Four persons, all labourers, were killed and five others were injured after an out-of-control bus crashed into the roadside shanties they were sleeping in on Saturday night in Goa, police said.
Police said the incident took place around 11:30pm on Saturday at the Verna industrial estate around 25 km south of the state capital Panaji.
Nine labourers were staying inside three huts made of corrugated metal sheets, three of whom died on the spot, a fourth succumbed in hospital while five others are injured, one of whom is serious, said police.
The labourers who hailed from Bihar were working on a road project at the industrial estate.
According to the police, the bus was ferrying employees of Rosenberger Interconnect Private Ltd, a telecommunications equipment manufacturing and supply company. None of the occupants of the bus were injured.
The surviving labourers alleged that the driver of the bus was driving under the influence of alcohol.
“We have detained the driver of the bus and have launched a probe into the incident,” said a police officer at the Verna police station.