A school student in the northern city of Rangpur has died after a bus ran over him triggering protests which caused traffic suspended on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway for five hours on Sunday.
Around 11:30am, Tanvir Ahmed Jion, who was on a bicycle, was run over by a bus at the city’s Modern intersection, said police.
The 15-year-old, who was a tenth-grader at the city’s Collectorate School and College, died on the spot.
The driver has been detained, said Additional Superintendent of Police Saifur Rahman.
Students and agitated locals, who managed to seize the bus, took the street soon after when they blocked the highway and vandalised at least eight vehicles.
The police initially failed to remove the demonstrators from the highway before resorting to charging batons and firing tear gas canisters around 3:30pm, when running battles broke out.
At least 20 people have been injured, according to reports.
Traffic resumed around 4pm after being halted for five hours.
The incident in Rangpur happens exactly two weeks after a bus ploughed into a group of students in Dhaka killing two on the spot and injuring several others.
On July 29, two college students were run over at a bus stop on the capital’s Airport Road. The incident sparked waves of protests that brought Dhaka to its knees for eight days.