Madhya Pradesh: Locals loot edible oil as tanker overturns near Sardarpur

Sardarpur (Madhya Pradesh): A tanker carrying edible oil overturned on the busy Indore - Ahmedabad National highway here in Sardarpur tehsil of Dhar district, disrupting traffic movement on the road for about a couple of hours, police said on Friday.

After the accident took place on Friday morning, a number of locals rushed to the spot and looted the oil overflowing from the tanker, they said.

The tanker carrying 12,000 litres of edible oil was heading towards Dhar from Rajgarh when the driver lost control of the wheels near Magod village. As a result, the vehicle overturned and the oil started leaking from the tanker. Many villagers rushed to the spot and took away the oil in their cans and other vessels, the official said.

A local rescue team later removed the tanker from the road and normal traffic movement was restored, the official said.

After a lot of effort, the police made the tanker upright with the help of a crane. After the accident, the tanker owner and other people also reached the spot.

The tanker driver suffered minor injuries in the accident, informed officials and said that he lost control of the vehicle as he had dozed off.

Major accident averted!

Amid the loot incident at the spot where the tanker overturned, many believed that it could have been another tanker blast incident like the Khargone incident that happened on October 26 if the tanker was filled with inflammable liquid instead of edible oil.

Notably, the police had a tough time controlling the crowd as well as traffic movement. A large number of villagers thronged the site without knowing what was inside the tanker or bothering to know what could be its repercussion if the tanker caught fire like the Khargone incident in which over one-and-a-half dozen people had succumbed to their injuries after the vehicle exploded when people were collecting spilt fuel.