Out of the injured, two students Surinder and Sarabjit were admitted to CMCH along with bus driver Sukhchain Singh, who has been booked.

The accident occurred when a wooden cart run manually came on the road all of a sudden. The brakes of the mini- bus failed, and the bus first went on the footpath from the main road and later overturned.

The injured were rushed to Civil Hospital from where those serious were referred to CMCH. All the students were going to Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Samrala, and were from Bhamian Khurd, Khasikalan, Chabewal, Bhukri and many other villages.

Most of the girls were discharged by evening after giving them the necessary treatment.

Sources said the bus driver came late and he was in a hurry to reach the school in time and, therefore, he was overspeeding. In addition to this, he never checked that brakes were not in a working order.

Sukhchain, however, said the brakes failed all of a sudden.

DCP S Boopathi, SDM Ajay Sood and many other officers rushed to the spot. Sood expressed concern about the health of the girls and announced that the expenditure would be borne by Red Cross for treatment of the girls.

“We have told the district transport officer to continue checking of the mini-buses and their safety standards should not be ignored at any cost,” Sood added.