Ambulance hijacked, thief leads dramatic high-speed chase on Hyderabad-Vijayawada NH, crashes and injures officer; shocking video surface

Vijayawada (The Uttam Hindu): A thief stole an ambulance and led police on a dramatic high-speed chase across the city. The thief, after taking the 108 ambulance from Hayatnagar, sped toward Vijayawada with the vehicle’s siren blaring. Police teams, alerted to the situation, began pursuing him along the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway.

The chase escalated when the thief struck a police officer named John Reddy at Chityala, then crashed into the gate at the Korlapahad toll plaza in Kethepalli Mandal, before continuing to flee. Dramatic videos of the incident surfaced online, showing the intense pursuit before the ambulance was finally stopped. Police managed to intercept the vehicle by blocking the road at Tekumatla and arrested the suspect, who was found to have a history of theft. ASI John Reddy, who suffered serious injuries, was rushed to a private hospital in Hyderabad for treatment.

In a separate tragic incident, five people lost their lives, and one was injured when a car plunged into a lake in Telangana's Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district early this morning. The accident occurred in the Jalalpur area of Bhudan Pochampally subdivision, as a group of six friends was traveling from Hyderabad to Bhudan Pochampally. The speeding car lost control, veered off the road, and fell into the lake. Locals quickly alerted the authorities, prompting a rescue operation by Telangana Police. The injured passenger, identified as Manikanth (21), was taken to a nearby hospital, while the bodies of the deceased—Vamsi (23), Dignesh (21), Harsha (21), Balu (19), and Vinay (21)—were retrieved and sent for postmortem examinations. All six victims were residents of Hyderabad. A senior police official confirmed that a case has been registered, and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the accident.