“A police jeep travelling ahead of the convoy of the chief minister met with an accident in Arjunganj market area on Saturday evening. 15 persons were injured,” Lucknow Police Commissioner S B Shiradkar told PTI.

Lucknow: In an unfortunate incident, at least 15 people including five police personnel were injured when a police jeep met with an accident on Saturday evening while securing the route for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s cavalcade. According to the police officials, the accident occurred when the speeding jeep hit two vehicles parked on the roadside while trying to avoid an animal that suddenly came before it.

It was not immediately clear whether the chief minister was in the convoy when the accident happened in Arjunganj while it was returning from the airport here.

Police further added that the local police’s jeep was at least a kilometre ahead of the cavalcade. “A police jeep travelling ahead of the convoy of the chief minister met with an accident in Arjunganj market area on Saturday evening. 15 persons were injured,” Lucknow Police Commissioner S B Shiradkar told PTI.

Those injured include five personnel who were in the police jeep and 10 in the two other cars that it hit. The injured have been rushed to a hospital for medical care.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said the stray cattle menace has become a “dangerous truth” of Uttar Pradesh. “The convoy of the chief minister himself met with an accident today due to the problem of stray animals not being taken seriously. Many people have been injured. (It is) Sad as well as worrying,” he said in a post on X in Hindi.

“The problem of (stray) animals is a dangerous truth of Uttar Pradesh. This is a question of people’s lives. The BJP should take a lesson from this incident,” he said.