A government bus driver sped through the streets of the Indian city of Pune today smashing his empty bus into dozens of vehicles, killing nine people and injuring 27, police said.
"He just went berserk," city police commissioner Meeran Borwanker told reporters.
"On the way, he went on ramming whatever vehicles were plying the road," she said, adding that pedestrians pushed children out of the way of the bus to protect them.
"He was in such a dangerous kind of mood," she said. Police were interrogating driver Santosh Mane to try to determine what sparked the deadly rampage and were likely to charge him with murder, a senior police officer in Pune said.
The driver was not drunk, said the officer, who declined to be identified. Police chased the bus during the morning rush-hour chaos, firing shots at its tyres in an attempt to stop it.
Mr Mane drove for more than 20km, mostly on the wrong side of the road, before being brought to a halt, the police officer said.
A college student, Sharif Ibrahim Kutty, eventually managed to climb on board the bus after the driver 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 Mr Sharif as saying. "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."
Reuters