A car with six persons plunged into the Bhagirathi river while attempting to board a water vessel on Thursday morning, killing two occupants — a young couple — at Sadarghat in Murshidabad’s Behrampore.

Deceased Subhajit Sarkar, 26, and wife Suman Sarkar, 21, were both residents of Khagra in Behrampore. Their 14-month-old daughter Sumedha, and the child’s grandparents who were also in the car, have survived.

Sources said Subhajit, along with his wife, infant, his father Ranjit Sarkar, 51, and in-laws Gorachand Das, 49, and Baby Das, 42, were headed towards Dahapara Dham in the district and the accident occurred when he was driving the car onto a boat.

Many car owners in Behrampore use vessels or boats to cross some 200 metres of the Bhagirathi river and avoid a detour of 5-7km to reach Khosbagh on the other side of the river.

Eyewitnesses said that while attempting to board the boat, the car suddenly accelerated, overshot the length of the boat and fell into the river with all passengers on board.

“Usually, passengers get down from the vehicle before it boards the vessel. But none of the occupants of this car deboarded before it was driven onto the vessel,” an eyewitness said.

After the car fell into the river, boatmen plunged into a rescue operation and pulled out the baby girl, Ranjit, Gorachand and Baby and admitted them to the Lalbag Subdivisional Hospital.

However, the couple could not be pulled out from the front seat. The car had sunk head-first.

Police said that the car and the two bodies were recovered later in the day and sent for autopsy.

Those rescued were released after primary treatment, a doctor said.

According to the cops, the rescue of the four persons could not been possible without boatmen Arif Sheikh, Tapas Das, Bikram Seikh and Ashish Haldar.

Murshidabad ASP Asim Khan said: “The accident claimed two lives. All six would have died had it not been for the four boatmen. The police will felicitate the boatmen.”

Boatman Sheikh said: “The person driving the car failed to control its speed when it was boarding the vessel. The speeding car tipped over the edge of the boat into the river. We dived right in.”

“But as the car sank, passengers in the rear seats could be rescued, but not the couple in the front seat,” the boatman added.

The ASP said vessels must have strong walls at the edges to prevent such accidents. “We are also probing if four-wheelers can be allowed to board these vessels,” he said.