Dhar: Seven persons were killed and three other people were injured after an LPG tanker collided with two other vehicles in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district.
Police officials said the incident took place around 11 pm on Wednesday when an LPG tanker was moving on the wrong side on the Badnawar-Ujjain four lane highway.
It hit a car and a jeep coming from the opposite direction, Dhar SP Manoj Kumar Singh said. Four persons died on the spot, while three others succumbed to injuries later in hospital, he said.
The collision was so severe that one of the vehicles got stuck under the tanker. After receiving the information, senior officials reached the spot to launch the rescue operation. Local residents helped in the operation during which trapped persons were pulled out of the vehicles using a crane, the SP said. The injured persons were admitted to a hospital in the neighbouring Ratlam district, he said.
The victims belong to Ratlam, Mandsaur (in MP) and Jodhpur (Rajasthan) districts, the SP said. The truck driver fled from the spot after the accident.
The bodies of all the deceased have been brought to Badnawar Hospital, where their post-mortem will be done on Thursday. All of the deceased worked in a private finance company and were returning to Mandsaur from Indore after attending the farewell party of their senior officer when the accident took place.
Badnawar police station Traffic Inspector Amit Kushwaha, who was present at the spot, said, "All the bodies have been taken to the government hospital in Badnawar. They will be handed over to the family after postmortem."
He identified the deceased as Girdhari Lal Makhija, Viramlal Dhangar, Chetan Bagherwal, Anil Vyas, Bana Singh, Anoop Poonia and Jitendra Poonia.
Three die in another accident
A second accident took place near the village Mel Kheda of Shamgarh police station area of Mandsaur late Wednesday night. On the Delhi-Mumbai 8 line expressway, a car passing from Haryana running at high speed rolled into a ditch in which three people named Kanwarlal, Surendra, and Roshan died on the spot.
A police official said the deceased are residents of Delhi. The bodies have been taken to Shamgarh Community Health Center for the post-mortem, after which they will be handed over to the relatives.
Sub Inspector Avinash Soni of Shamgarh police station said, "The relatives of the deceased have been contacted, and they have left for Mandsaur."
