A major tragedy was averted by the timely action of the police who disconnected power supply in the area after an LPG tanker overturned at Bedrody near Uppinangady on National Highway 75 in the early hours of Sunday.

According to the Uppinangady Police, the tanker that belonged to Bharat Petroleum was on its way from Mangaluru to Bengaluru when the driver lost control while negotiating a turn and it overturned. The police quickly rushed to the spot and saw gas leaking from the tanker. They alerted the Fire and Emergency Services personnel and the Bharat Petroleum officials. The firemen arrived with fire tenders, while the oil company representatives came with their vehicles to arrest the gas leak and also offload gas from the overturned tanker.

The police passed messages to houses in a radius of one kilometre not to light up anything. MESCOM officials were asked to shut down power supply in the area. Arrangements were made to divert traffic moving towards Bengaluru and Mangaluru from Mani and Periyashanti, respectively. Traffic movement was restored at around 3 p.m., the police said.