Six killed in road accident near Chennai

CHENNAI: Six people died and five others suffered serious injuries in a road accident involving two trucks and a mini truck near Madhuranthagam on the Trichy-Chennai National Highway in the early hours of Wednesday.
The deceased have been identified as Chandrasekar, 70, Dhamodharan, 28, Sasikumar, 35, Sekar, 55, Ezhumalai, 65, and Gokul, 33. The injured are Ramamoorthy, 35, Sathish Kumar, 27, Ravi, 26, Sekar, 37, and Ayyanar, 34. All of them hailed from Pozhichalur in Chennai.
The accident happened around 4am when they were returning to Chennai after participating in the Karthigai Deepam festival in Thiruvannamalai temple.
When the mini truck reached Janakipuram, it rammed a truck moving in front of it. Another truck, which was moving behind it, rammed the mini truck. The mini truck was stuck between the two trucks. Six people travelling on the mini truck died on the spot while five others suffered grievous injuries.
Police sent the bodies to Chengalpet Government Hospital for postmortem.
Traffic came to a standstill on the national highway for more than three hours.