By IANS
Pune : An 11-year-old boy was crushed to death by a Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) bus here early Tuesday, following which angry crowds started throwing stones, damaging around 60 buses, the police said.
Atharva Deepak Dongre, a resident of Kasba Peth, was cycling to football practice at 7.15 a.m. when the bus ran over him, said Pune Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar.
Within half-an-hour, angry residents threw stones at buses, damaging 60 of them. PMT suffered losses to the tune of Rs.8 million, police sources said.
The situation went out of control, with traffic snarls in the area, especially since exams for Class 10 and 12 were on and students had to commute to different examination centres.
“For precautionary measures, we issued directions to centres to allow children to sit for their exams even if they were from other centres,” said Ram Joshi, senior superintendent, examination board.
But Joshi told IANS that all children managed to reach their respective exam centres on time despite the accident and the resultant chaos.
Umranikar said he was upset over the way PMT buses were being driven.
“We have time and again issued orders to the PMT about reckless driving but nothing seems to be happening,” he said.