Eleven students have been admitted to a hospital in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh, after a bus of the state transport department taking them home from Allahabad to Kushinagar rammed into a truck while passing by a village on Wednesday.

A policeman said the accident happened after the bus driver, tired after being on duty for the past 24 hours, tried to overtake the truck on an empty road in Bilari village close to Ayodhya town.

The condition of two students is said to be serious.

The Uttar Pradesh government had decided two days ago to ferry home students who live in Allahabad to prepare for competitive exams. According to an estimate, 5,000 such students, mostly from east Uttar Pradesh, were stranded there as they didn’t get enough time to return home before the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in on March 25 at four hours’ notice.

Most of these students stay in rented rooms in Allahabad city. Another 500 are still in Allahabad University hostels.

Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary, department of home, had said then it was a “gift” from chief minister Yogi Adityanath to students of Allahabad.

The police said the bus, which was carrying 35 people including the students and some policemen, hit the truck while trying to overtake it. Two policemen and the driver of the bus were also injured.

“The driver was tired and unable to keep his eyes open as he was on duty for the last 24 hours. He stopped for half an hour in Sultanpur and had washed his face. He was supposed to drop the students off in Kushinagar before 10am and return to Allahabad (around 350km away) for the next trip,” a policeman, who didn’t want to be named, told reporters on the basis of information he got from some of the students.

He said the accident took place at 8am and the rear left side of the bus was completely damaged. The front end of the truck was damaged too but the truck driver wasn’t hurt.

“The truck was taking essential commodities to Gorakhpur. There was no vehicle on the road because of the lockdown. Still, this accident took place,” the policeman added.

Anuj Jha, district magistrate of Faizabad, said: “One of the knees of the driver was fractured. Some students have sustained injuries but none of them is critical. Some students are still here in the district hospital. We have deployed a bus to send home those students who are not injured.”