Agencies/Pune


The wreckage of an auto-rickshaw and a car are seen on a Pune road yesterday. Nine people were killed when a bus driver went on a rampage in Pune
A bus driver left at least nine people dead and dozens hurt yesterday after going on a rampage during rush-hour, smashing into cars and crushing pedestrians, police said.
The rogue driver hijacked the vehicle in a depot with a master key and then sped down the crowded streets of Pune as children headed to school and office employees made their way to work.
The half-hour wrecking spree came to a halt only when members of the public wrestled him from the controls after he rammed into another bus. He has since been detained and interrogated by police.
“He just went berserk. He went on ramming whatever vehicles were plying the road,” Pune Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar told a press conference.
“Citizens came forward and literally threw children (out of the way). He was in such a dangerous mood. Ultimately he was held (by police) but the damage has been tremendous.”
An officer in the police control room said that nine people had been killed and 27 injured. Some 40 vehicles were left mangled, with cars damaged and auto-rickshaws overturned.
“He was a nut-case, he had completely lost his head,” said the officer, who asked not to be named.
“Most of the damage was to parked taxis, private vehicles, cycles and stalls.”
Identified by police as 30-year-old Santosh Mane, he was confirmed as a licensed driver and employee of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).
Police were interrogating Mane to try to determine what sparked the deadly rampage and were likely to charge him with murder, a senior police officer said.
The driver was not drunk, said the officer.
Mane drove for more than 20km, mostly on the wrong side of the road, before being brought to a halt, the police officer said.
“His face showed stress and aggression. We tried to stop him ... but he drove with maddening speed on the wrong side making it difficult for us to keep up,” police inspector Pundalik Dhaigude said.
Dazed witnesses recalled that Mane spared no one and nothing as he drove through Golibar Maidan, near the military cantonment, East Street, Solapur Bazar, back to Golibar Maidan, Swargate and Sarasbaug.
Mane, who lived in the bus depot, had reported for duty in the morning but was told there were no spare buses. That is when he got into the bus that had come from Satara and zoomed off, taking everyone by surprise.
A college student, Sharif Ibrahim Kutty, eventually managed to climb on board the bus after Mane lost control and overpowered him, according to the news channel NDTV.
“I saw a bus approach a woman and a young child and it just crushed her and then kept going, dragging her with it,” NDTV quoted Sharif as saying on its website.
“I got on my bike and I started chasing him. The police fired three rounds, but in vain. At a particular stage near a theatre, he lost control of the bus,” Kutty said.
“This is very unfortunate. We are unsure what state of mind he was in when he committed the act,” V V Ratnaparkhi, a senior official at the MSRTC, said.
Witnesses described their horror as the bus careened through the streets. The Press Trust of India reported that police fired 10 shots during their pursuit of the vehicle.
“Whoever came in his way, he just rammed into them,” one witness told NDTV television.
Another said: “I was out jogging, there was a noise, I jumped immediately that is why I was saved. This is my second life, I would have been dead.”