A passenger died and another commuter lost his right arm when an ambulance rammed into an auto-rickshaw — ferrying three passengers — in Nadia on Friday morning.

Police and eye-witnesses said the ambulance driver lost control of the vehicle and first crashed into the auto-rickshaw on Krishnagar-Karimpur road near Mahisbathan-Koruitala area. The ambulance then hit another auto-rickshaw in the rear and overturned. It came to a halt after hitting a roadside tree.

The impact of the collision was so strong that the ill-fated auto-rickshaw — heading towards Karimpur from Nazirpur — was thrown off the road killing Biswajit Pramanik, 30, one of the four occupants in the three-wheeler, on the spot.

Sources said the vacant ambulance was travelling at high speed in a zigzag manner when the driver lost control of the vehicle. They said the driver was exhausted as he was on continuous Covid duty.

The sources said that the deceased was a resident of Natna. He was going to the Karimpur rural hospital to see his elder brother who had been admitted to the facility there on Thursday evening with suspected Covid symptoms.

Two other passengers Mantu Ghosh, 36, Anima Ghosh, 67, and driver of the autorickshaw Panchanan Saha, 48, were grievously injured in the accident. They have been admitted to Nadia district hospital in Krishnagar.

Mantu, a resident of Hogolberia, who was sitting on the right side of the driver in the three-wheeler, lost his right arm in the accident.

“The arm of the victim was completely snapped from the body and fell around 20 metres away,” an officer of Karimpur police station said adding that it was retrieved and immediately sent to the district hospital.

The police have detained the ambulance driver, who was also injured in the accident. He was taken to Karimpur rural hospital but released after primary treatment.

The police have started a case of reckless driving against the ambulance driver.

An investigating official of Karimpur police station said: “It could not be immediately ascertained how the accident occurred. But it appears that the driver was in temporary slumber while driving that led him to lose control over the vehicle. We are examining the possible reasons behind the accident.”