Kasganj/Etah (UP), Aug. 31 -- Three pilgrims were killed and 23 others, including women and children, sustained injuries when a pickup vehicle carrying them collided head-on with a loader truck in Kasganj district early Monday, police said.
The accident occurred around 4 am near Mohanpura village on the Kasganj-Sikandra Rao road, when around 26 members of a family from Rajasthan's Karauli district were travelling to Soronji for immersion of ashes, they said.
The collision severely damaged the pickup, and three people died on the spot, police said.
The injured comprise eight men, eight women and seven children. They were taken to the district hospital, from where the six seriously injured people were referred to a higher medical centre in Aligarh.
Kasganj Superintendent of Police Om Prakash Singh said the deceased and injured were members of the same family.
"The family was travelling from Karauli to Soronji for immersion of ashes. There were 26 people in the pickup, of whom three died. Around half a dozen seriously injured people have been referred to Aligarh," he said.
Police and administrative officials reached the spot after being alerted and launched rescue operations. The two damaged vehicles were removed from the road, and traffic was restored.
The bodies were sent for post-mortem examination and legal proceedings have been initiated, police said. The cause of the accident is being investigated.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.