Rautahat, June 26:

A child died while his mother was critically injured when a passenger bus hit them at Kabir Chowk of Gaur Municipality-8 today. Locals clashed with the security personnel when the latter tried to stop the mob from torching the bus.

The passenger bus (Na 1 Kha 3922) belonging to Deepa Travels, heading Chandranigahpur to Gaur, hit the duo pedestrians at 12:30 pm. The bus, which was moving reverse, crushed Sudhanshu Jaisawal, 3, who was lying flat on the road and Sudha Devi, 30, was critically injured in the incident, eyewitnesses said.

Sudha Devi of Motihari in India was visiting her relative at Gaur Municipality-8.

The bus driver absconded after the locals began to protest. Sudha is undergoing treatment in the Gaur Hospital and tat s. Head of the hospital Dr Braj Kishore Thakur said she was undergoing treatment. Her right leg was fractured, he added. Irate locals vandalised and torched the bus after the incident. A dozen locals and some security personnel were injured in the clash. The driver Umesh Karki has been taken into custody, police said.