Six kids hurt after school van topples

The incident took place three kilometres away from Galaxy Matriculation higher secondary school at Mehta Nagar in Kundrathur and the driver M Sathish (28) of Kundrathur and her assistant Chitra (51) also sustained injuries, said the police.

The van was headed to the school after picking up the students from Kolapakkam, Gerugambakkam and Kundrathur around 8 am, when the vehicle toppled on a service road close to the Tambaram-Red Hills bypass road, said the police.

Passers-by and motorists rushed to the rescue of the children, who were stuck inside the van. They broke windshields of the van and helped the children step out of the vehicle.

All the children were rushed to Chromepet Government Hospital, where six of those injured received treatment. Meanwhile, suspecting the driver to have been driving drunk, passers-by thrashed him and handed him over to the police.

The Poonamallee Traffic Investigation police registered a case and confirmed that the driver, Sathish, was not drunk. He was, however, booked for rash driving.