PRAYAGRAJ: At least 14 persons including six children were killed when an SUV carrying over a dozen passengers collided with a truck on Prayagraj - Lucknow highway late on Thursday night. The accident happened near Deshraj Ka Inara village under the limits of Manikpur police station of Pratapgarh district.
SP (Pratapgarh) Anurag Arya said the accident took place around 11.45pm on Thursday when an SUV carrying 14 passengers rammed into a truck killing all of them on the spot.
Arya added that initially police had recovered five bodies and then they called in a JCB to take out the ill-fated SUV from under the truck. The police later recovered nine more bodies from the SUV.
Police said out of 14 victims, six were aged between 7 and 15 years while the remaining eight persons were aged between 20 and 60 years.
Initial police investigation revealed that the driver of the truck had parked the vehicle on roadside to fix the flat tyre. The driver of the SUV could not control the speed and rammed into the truck from the rear side.
Police said all the deceased were returning to their native village Jigrapur after attending a marriage function in Seikhwapur (Nawabganj).
Forces of five police stations have been deployed to carry out rescue operations. All bodies were initially brought at Kunda community health centre and later sent for post mortem.