Indian bus driver goes on rampage, kills 9

MUMBAI, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- An Indian state transit driver went berserk Wednesday, driving his speeding bus on the wrong side through crowded streets, killing nine people, police said.

Several vehicles in the way of the speeding bus in the Swargate area in the city of Pune, in western Maharashtra State, were wrecked, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Mumbai is the capital of the state.

At least 27 more people, some of them pedestrians, were injured, police said.

The driver, identified as Santosh Mane, was stopped and arrested after an hourlong chase, police said. Mane was believed to have commandeered the bus from another terminus.

"Nine persons are dead and 27 have been injured in the accident," police official Satpal Singh was quoted as saying. "He was hitting everything that was coming in his way."

It was not clear what led the driver to go on rampage. One report said up to 40 vehicles were damaged or wrecked.

Five of these injured were reported to in critical condition at a local hospital.