Bangalore : An eight-year-old girl died on Wednesday when she came under the wheels of her school bus, seconds after it had dropped her off at her house in Jyothi Nagar.

Namitha, a second standard student of Siddaganga Public School in Chandra Layout and daughter or architect Narendra Babu, had forgotten her lunch box while getting down from the bus. Her friends threw it out of the window. However, she could not catch it.

Since the bus was stationary, she got under it to retrieve her lunch box, but just then, it started moving and she was run over.

Screaming children and passersby alerted the driver, who stopped the bus immediately. Namitha was rushed to a nearby hospital, but doctors said she had died on the way. Namitha has two sisters.

The Byatarayanpura traffic police have arrested driver Fairoz Khan (26), and are verifying if he had all the relevant documents. They are checking for any negligence by the school, especially with respect to the ‘Safe to School’ initiative launched in 2012 after several children died in bus accidents.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B Dayanand said efforts would be made to ensure schools followed safety regulations strictly.