Agencies | Thrissur:
Eight engineering students from Tamil Nadu were killed after the car they were travelling in crashed into the rear of a parked goods lorry on a highway in Kerala’s Thrissur district late Friday night, police said.
The accident occurred around 11:40 pm at Panambikkunnu in Kaipamangalam, as the car was travelling from Guruvayur towards Kodungallur.
According to Kerala Police, the car rammed into the rear of a goods lorry parked on the National Highway in the same direction. The stretch was reportedly undergoing roadwork at the time of the accident.
“The car was completely mangled in the impact, and the occupants had to be extricated by cutting open the vehicle,” police said.
Seven of the occupants died at the scene, while another succumbed to injuries after being shifted to a hospital.
Following the crash, local residents, police personnel and Fire and Rescue Services teams rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. Firefighters had to cut open sections of the wreckage to extricate the trapped occupants.
The bodies were subsequently shifted to the mortuary at Thrissur Medical College.
Police said preliminary information indicated that the victims were students of an engineering college in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. An identity card belonging to a student of PSNA Engineering College, Dindigul, was reportedly recovered from the accident site.
Police are continuing to verify the identities of all the deceased and are investigating the circumstances that led to the fatal collision.
