At least 23 people were killed and several others injured on Friday when a passenger minibus collided head-on with a container truck on a highway near Kaziranga National Park in Assam, police said. Many of the dead were college students returning from classes, and officials warned that the death toll could still rise as rescue teams worked through the wreckage.

The crash took place at Rangajan, near the Hathikuli tea estate in the Kohora range of Golaghat district, on National Highway 715, which runs past the UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its one-horned rhinoceroses. The minibus, a Force Traveller, was travelling from Bokakhat towards Nagaon with around 30 people on board, while the container truck was heading in the opposite direction towards Upper Assam.

Speeding suspected

Golaghat Senior Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka told reporters that 23 deaths had been confirmed and seven people had been referred to hospital, adding that the toll was likely to increase as more bodies were recovered from the badly damaged minibus. The identities of the victims were still being established on Friday evening.

Preliminary investigations point to overspeeding. Police said the minibus was running at very high speed in violation of the restrictions in force near the national park, and that the driver appeared to have lost control before the collision. Officials stressed that this was a preliminary assessment and that the district administration would conduct a detailed inquiry into the circumstances of the crash.

Rescue and relief

Senior police and district officials rushed to the spot to oversee rescue work, and the injured were initially taken to the Kohora Model Hospital, with the critically injured referred to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital for advanced treatment. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he was deeply distressed by the tragic accident and sent a senior minister to the site to oversee relief arrangements. Cabinet minister Atul Bora, who represents the area as its local MLA, reached the spot to supervise the rescue and hospital coordination.

The stretch of highway through Kaziranga is governed by strict, legally mandated speed limits, designed both to protect commuters and to safeguard wildlife crossing between the park and the adjoining hills. Friday's crash is a reminder of how quickly those limits can turn deadly when they are ignored — and of the human cost when a routine journey home from college ends in disaster.