Four members of a family, including two women and a child, lost their lives in a road accident in Cooch Behar district in the wee hours of Friday.

Police sources said the incident happened at Sutarpara under Mathabhanga-II block when five members of a family was returning from a wedding. The driver lost control of the car that careened off the road and fell into a ditch.

“Six persons (including the driver) from Putimari of Cooch Behar had been to Sutkabari of Cooch Behar-I block, to attend a wedding. They were returning home in the car when the mishap occurred around 1am,” said a police officer.

As the car fell into the ditch, the screams of the occupants alerted some local residents who rushed to the site got the persons out of the car that had almost submerged in the water of the ditch.

“We heard a big thud and screams. We rushed out and found that a car had fallen into the ditch. We got inside and started taking the six occupants out one after another,” said Ramendranath Roy a resident of Sutarpara.

An excavator pulls out the car from the ditch on Friday, hours after its six occupants were rushed to a hospital and four of them were pronounced dead.

All the six occupants were rushed to the MJN Medical College and Hospital in Cooch Behar, located around 15km away from the site, where the doctors pronounced four of them dead.

The deceased have been identified as Aminul Mian, 29, Rejina Bibi, 20, Kohinoor Bibi, 22, and Shakib Mian, 5. The two injured — the driver and a passengers — are seriously injured.

A team from Mathabhanga police station examined the spot. An excavator took out the car from the ditch.

“The vehicle has been seized. We will examine it and will also talk to the injured to know how the accident occurred,” a police officer said.

Cattle seizure

Phansidewa police in Darjeeling district acted on a tip-off and caught three trucks on NH27 between Ghoshpukur and Fulbari on the outskirts of Siliguri on Friday and recovered 27 cattle allegedly being smuggled to Assam from Bihar. Six persons, all residents of Punjab, were arrested.