Hajipur (Bihar): Six persons were killed and several injured in a road accident near Satiara Chowk in Vaishali district on July 14, while one person was wounded when police lathi-charged (caned) and fired on a violent mob that blockaded the road in protest against the mishap.

The six were killed when the driver of a maxi-taxi, coming from Muzaffarpur, lost control over the vehicle while trying to negotiate a pothole and rammed it into a private bus coming from the opposite direction, police said.

Two died on the spot while others, including a eight-year old girl, succumbed to their injuries later.

A group of local villagers blockaded Satiara Chowk, under town police station, after the accident and when a police party reached there, they started pelting stones on them, DIG (Tirhut range) S K Bhardwaj told reporters.

The police lathi-charged and then fired one round in self-defence injuring one villager, Bhardwaj said adding a few policemen were injured in the brick-batting.

The injured villager was sent to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), the DIG said.

While two persons died immediately after the accident, one succumbed on way to hospital. Of the five critically injured who were shifted to PMCH, two were declared brought dead there while a eight-year old girl died after admission, sources in the PMCH said.

The rest two are battling for their lives, a doctor attending on them said.

Those who received minor injuries were released after administering first aid at a government hospital in Hajipur.

PTI