Dhenkanal: A wedding celebration turned into a tragedy after a car carrying members of a wedding procession plunged into a roadside pond in Dhenkanal district, leaving five people dead.
The deceased have been identified as Sri Ram Sahu (25), Abinash Sahu (28), Rakesh Kumar Sahu (25), Chandrakanta Swain (27), and Abhijit Sahu (25).
According to reports, the wedding of Abhishek Sahu, son of Santosh Kumar Sahu of Bangursingh village, was scheduled to take place with the daughter of Rohit Kumar Prusti of Indupur village under Dhenkanal Sadar police limits. The wedding party had set out from Bangursingh to Indupur in several vehicles.
The driver of one of the vehicles, a Mahindra XUV, reportedly lost control over the wheels, causing the four-wheeler to veer off the road and plunge into a roadside pond. Five occupants of the vehicle were trapped inside the submerged car and are suspected to have died of suffocation before they could be rescued.
On receiving information, Dhenkanal Sadar police reached the accident site, recovered the bodies and sent them to the Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) for post-mortem examination. Police have launched an investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.