For long, Billal Fakir, 40, and his family wanted a fourth child. On the day their wish was to be granted, fate betrayed them.

Billal, who used to work as an Imam of a mosque in Madaripur Sadar upazila, was taking his wife to a private hospital in Dhaka for her delivery yesterday when the ambulance's tyre started leaking.

The driver parked the ambulance at one edge of the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway at Nimatola area of Munshiganj to fix the leak when a bus of Golden Line Paribahan hit the parked vehicle from the rear.

The accident claimed five lives and injured five others, said Billal's cousin Miraj Ahmed.

Billal's mother Saheda Begum, 57, died on the spot, and the rest were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for treatment, said Abdul Qader Jilani, the officer-in-charge of Munshiganj's Hasara Highway Police Station.

The ambulance driver Mahbub Sarder, 28; Billal; his father Abdus Samad Fakir, 60; and Billal's sister Afsana Akhter, 22, were brought dead to the hospital, said Md. Faruk, the in-charge of DMCH police outpost.

Billal's expecting wife Rozina Begum, 30; their younger daughter Marium Akhter, 5; Billal's sister-in-law Sharmin Akhter, 24; and brother-in-law Iqtar Hossain, 20, suffered injuries. They were provided with primary treatment, said Miraj.

Later, Rozina was taken to a private hospital in Dhanmondi, where she delivered a baby boy at around 5:30pm.

"She has mentally collapsed. She cannot enjoy the moment," Miraj told The Daily Star.

Police seized the bus and the ambulance, Jilani, the OC of Hasara Highway Police Station.

The bus driver was also injured in the accident and was undergoing treatment at the DMCH. The bodies were kept at the DMCH morgue for autopsy, Faruk said.

[Our Correspondent from Munshiganj contributed to the report]