Sikkim witnessed three separate incidents of tragedy on Tuesday that resulted in the deaths of four persons, including two minors, and injuries to 26 others.

One was a landslide that killed three members of a family, the other was a bus accident where 25 students from Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi and their driver were injured. In the third tragedy, a 20-year-old student suddenly collapsed on college campus and died a little later.

Police sources said the first incident occurred when a landslide buried the home of Bimal Mangar at Rongay Daragaon, about 5km from Gangtok, around 1.15am on Tuesday, killing his 27-year-old wife Doma Sherpa and two sons aged 10 years and seven months.

Mangar, who originally hails from western Sikkim and is a taxi driver, was not at home.

“He had gone to Siliguri on Monday to drop passengers and stayed back. His wife and children died after incessant rain triggered a landslide, burying his kutcha house under mud,” said a source.

The bodies were retrieved by Gangtok sub-divisional administration, police, State Disaster Response Force and local residents and taken to STNM Hospital in Gangtok for post-mortem.

“After the post-mortem, the three bodies have been sent home. Our government will render all possible help to the bereaved family,” said Jacob Khaling, the political secretary to Sikkim chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay).

Around 11am, a bus carrying 25 students from St Xavier’s College in Ranchi overturned at 7 Mile near Ranipool, which is 12km from Gangtok. All occupants of the bus were injured and immediately rushed to the Central Referral Hospital, Manipal, which is a short distance from the accident site.

“Students from Ranchi had come on an excursion and were on their way back home via Siliguri. The ill-fated bus was in the middle of a convoy of three buses carrying students from the college. There were 25 students in the bus. All of them and the driver suffered various degrees of injury,” said a source. “Why the accident occurred is a matter of probe.”

Three of the injured students and the driver suffered serious injuries.

“The government of Sikkim will bear all the expenses for the stay of the students, food and travel. The other students in two other buses also stayed (back) as they hesitated to travel because of the fear of the incident that occurred to their friends,” said Khaling.

In the third incident, Som Tshering Lepcha, 20, a commerce student of Nar Bahadur Bhandari Degree College in Gangtok, died after he collapsed on campus around 11.30am.

“We rushed him to hospital within 10 minutes of him collapsing, but he must have died on the way. The hospital declared him brought dead,” said D. Purohit, college principal.