4 killed as car plunges into gorge
Source: The Sangai Express
CCpur, December 10 2018:
Four people from Aizawl who were on their way to attend a relative's funeral at Churachandpur's New Lamka were killed as their Wagon R car met a mishap yesterday in between Khodungsei and Ngopa villages inside Mizoram.
The driver of the car identified as Lachuanawma, 44 was however found in a critical state and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Khodungsei.
Sources said the ill fated car and its occupants began their journey from Aizawl at about 8 pm Saturday.
They were scheduled to attend the funeral of a relative who passed away the same day and whose last rites and burial was held on Sunday.
The four occupants maintained contact with their relatives both in Aizawl and Churachandpur until early Sunday morning but their mobile phones went unanswered after about 6 am.
"Initially we throught that they might be sleeping or busy but as repeated attempts to get in touch both from Aizawl and Imphal remained unattended and we began to get worried," said one one of their relatives here.
As their trail was tracked by contacting the villages located along the route, it was established that they reached Ngopa village at about 6 am but failed to turn up at Khodungsei, the next village where they had also pre-ordered their lunch, even by 10 am.
The relatives then made frantic calls to both the villages to help trace the missing car.
Acting on the distress calls made both from Aizawl and Churachandpur, the villagers immediately mounted a search and rescue operation, even by cancelling their Sunday Church service.
The search team managed to trace the car at about 4 in the evening - badly wrecked - in a gorge, about 200 feet below the road.
Four of the five occupants were already dead when the villagers reached them.
The driver however was found in an unconscious state, said sources.
The bodies were retrieved at about 6 last night and kept at Khodungsei YMAhall for the night.
The four deceased, identified as Neihkimi, 70 of Bethlehem Veng, Aizawl; Demhnuni, 60 of Bethlehem Veng, Aizawl; Lalramthara, 61 of Bethlehem Veng; Chingzamawii, 45 of Saron Veng, Aizawl have been shifted to Aizawl for burial today.