Midnapore, June 9: Nine tourists were crushed under one of two buses that were bringing them back from Puri early this morning.

The private buses, carrying 115 residents of Khalisadi near Haroa in North 24-Parganas, came to a halt at Salkoti near Kharagpur on National Highway 6 around 3.30 am when one them had a flat tyre.

Some passengers got off and lay down on the stretch between the two buses. A truck speeding down the road hit the second bus from behind, which ran over the passengers.

The six who died on the spot are Arup Dasgupta, 21, Jalim Mollah, 40, Mrittunjoy Karmar, 27, Sukumar Biswas, 36, Sunil Laskar, 36, and Sanatan Paul, 21.

Alip Sarkar, Shantiwala Palit and Dwijen Ghosh succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Thirteen others were injured.