Pregnant Mom Crushed, Toddler Decapitated After Truck Runs Over Them

A pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter were killed Wednesday in India after a truck ran over them, police said.

The mother, identified by police as 25-year-old Babita Devi, had been crushed to death, while her daughter, Nandani, was decapitated after the truck rammed into their bike on Gandhi Setu in the city of Patna at around 11:30 a.m., The Times of India reported, citing the city's traffic police superintendent Mohammad Ali Ansari.

Devi's husband, 27-year-old Rakesh Kumar, was also critically injured in the accident, Ansari said. He was immediately rushed to Sadar Hospital in Hajipur in the district of Vaishali for treatment.

"The woman had come beneath the rear wheels. Such was the situation that her body was beyond recognition and had become a blob of flesh," Ansari was quoted as saying.

"The child was decapitated after coming beneath the wheels," he explained.

The family was heading to Phulwari Sharif in western Patna on bike when they were struck by the truck, which was coming from Patna toward Hajipur, according to Ansari. Devi and her daughter were killed on the spot.

The three were traveling to deliver food for Kumar's mother, who was admitted to a hospital in Phulwari Sharif after surgery. Police also learned that the woman was pregnant at the time of the incident.

The truck, which fled toward Hajipur, was intercepted and taken to Ganga bridge police station, Ansari said. The driver of the truck was arrested following the incident, according to the officer.

"An FIR (first information report) would be registered with Zero Mile traffic police station in Patna in connection with the incident," Ansari said.

A similar incident occurred in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh over two months ago when a 13-year-old girl was decapitated in a road accident.

The victim had stuck her head out of the window of a moving bus along a Khandwa district highway on March 30 when she was struck by a truck that had come from the opposite direction.

The child's head had been severed from her body, police said. An investigation into the incident was launched while police attempted to search for the truck's driver, who had fled the scene.