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Car plunges into Teesta in Siliguri, 3 missing

Siliguri: Three persons, including two tourists from Jaipur, were feared drowned when an SUV, heading towards Gangtok along National Highway 10, fell into the Teesta near Coronation Bridge on Wednesday afternoon. None of the passengers and the driver was traced till late evening.

The tourists, Aman Garg (28) and Gaurav Sharma (30), had landed at Bagdogra airport in the morning and taken a Toyota Innova they had booked from Siliguri-based tour operator Himalayan Travels.

The car left NH31A and approached Coronation Bridge around 12.30pm. As it got on to NH10, it headed towards a downward slope. Residents said the car lost control while trying to overtake a vehicle, skidded right and fell into the gorge.

“It has been raining heavily since Tuesday and there were mudslides at several places across the road,” said a resident. “Since there were no barricades along the road, the car fell straight into the gorge.” While tour agency owner Aditya Bothra could not be contacted, sources said the driver, Rakesh Rai — a resident of Bhanunagar, Siliguri — had been working with it for some time.

Local tour operator Samrat Sanyal said: “We will be able to find out what happened only when the victims are rescued. But drivers’ orientation is crucial in the Hills. There should be che-cks as it has been raining severely for the past few days.”

Heavy rains have been lashing the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Siliguri areas for 24 hours. Although this is a lean season in Gangtok, it gets around 1,200 tourists even at this time of the year.

An NDRF team rushed to the spot within 30 minutes and started rescue operatio-ns. Teams on river raft were deployed and started looking. Darjeeling SP Amarnath K said: “It seems the car fell into the gorge after it skidded off the road.”

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