Families, friends mourn death of 5 first-year medical students killed in Kerala accident

ALAPPUZHA: A night out turned into tragedy for five medical students of this coastal district, who were killed in an accident leaving their families and friends grief-stricken.

Parents who had spoken to their children just hours before the mishap, and hostel roommates who shared moments of laughter with them minutes before the tragedy, are now struggling to come to terms with the devastating loss.

The first-year MBBS students of the Vandanam Government Medical College here were killed after the rented car they were travelling in collided with a KSRTC bus on Monday night, leaving six seriously injured.

The deceased have been identified as Mohammed Abdul Jabbar from Kannur, Mohammed Ibrahim from Lakshadweep, Devanandan from Malappuram, Ayush Shaji from Alappuzha, and Srideep from Palakkad.

In the CCTV visuals aired by TV channels, it can be seen that the speeding car skids and collides with the passenger bus and gets crushed beneath it on the rainy night.

Three students died on the spot, local people who rushed to rescue them said.

Police said due to the impact of the collision, the car was destroyed completely, and the youths inside were taken out after breaking the vehicle.

The passengers in the bus sustained minor injuries, they added.

An eyewitness said the screams of the victims pleading for help were haunting him even hours after the tragedy.

"It is still unclear what actually happened. Maybe the incessant rains caused some difficulties for the person driving the car," he told TV channels.

He said that when he reached the car, one of the students caught hold of his hand, pleaded for help, and soon became unconscious.

An MBBS student said one of the deceased was his roommate and had told him the previous night that he was going to a movie.

"We were hostel roommates. Though we joined the college just one and a half months ago, I knew him even before, as we prepared for the medical entrance together," the student said.

A relative of another victim, who was spotted on the premises of the hospital where their postmortems were done, said he came to know about the news from the TV channels. "His parents are away in Indore. They were informed on Monday itself about the accident and they were on their way back," he said.

The houses of the deceased youths also witnessed emotional scenes as relatives and neighbours were seen struggling hard to console the parents.

At the house of Srideep, a native of Palakkad, his emotional father could be seen sitting speechless covering his face. One of his teachers, who reached home after knowing the tragedy, recalled: "He was my boy....He was such a bright student. I taught him in school for four years."

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the demise of the students and termed it as the "utmost painful incident".

"The tragic incident on the Alappuzha National Highway at Kalarcode, where five medical students lost their lives in a road accident, is deeply saddening," he said. He also expressed "heartfelt solidarity" with the grieving families.