At least seven children are missing and are feared dead after the vehicle in which they were travelling in with a total of 29 passengers fell into a canal here on Thursday morning, police said.
The incident took place in Nagaram here.
"A vehicle carrying around 29 people fell into the canal, around 22 people have been rescued so far, 7 children are still missing. Rescue operations by NDRF and local divers underway," Lucknow Range Inspector General S K Bhagat said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath taking cognizance of the incident has directed the Senior Superintendent of police, NDRF and SDRF to make all possible efforts for search and rescue of the persons who have drowned.
District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma told reporters here that all 29 people in the truck were from the same family and were residents of Barabanki district.
"They were returning from a wedding at night when the truck fell inside the canal. The accident took place at around 3 in the morning", he said.
Further, the district magistrate said that the flow of the canal has been reduced to 1 foot and the canal has been further diverted into three small canals to bring down the volume and flow of the water.
The district magistrate Sharma said there could be several reasons behind the accident.
"There is a very less chance that the driver dozed off while driving because the incident happened after 15 minutes of their departure. Maybe there was a technical glitch. Our main focus is to rescue now," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )