(Top) The mangled mini. (Below) Policemen take away a man who took part in the roadblock. Pictures by Rana Ghosh

Durgapur, Feb. 3: Three passengers of a minibus and its driver were killed when it rammed into a truck on a foggy morning in the Kanksa area of Burdwan.

The passengers who died were part of a group of tribal Christians from Khandaghosh going to Durgapur to attend a cultural programme in a church there.

There were 38 passengers in the bus that left Burdwan town around 6.45am.

Police said the bus was travelling fast and the driver, Satish Singh, 30, possibly did not spot the truck because of the fog. “The bus rammed into it and overturned around 8am. The truck driver and his helper fled, leaving their vehicle behind,” said a police officer.

Singh, 30, and Ishwari Soren, 31, who was sitting in the driver’s cabin, were killed on the spot. Narayan Soren, 35, and Sridhar, Soren, 30, died in a Durgapur hospital.

Alerted by the loud crash, a few hundred people from Rajbandh and neighbouring Gopalpur and Banskopa converged on National Highway 2 and blocked it for over two hours from 8.15am. The police were pelted with stones.

The villagers alleged that trucks plied recklessly along the highway and requests to police to rein them in had fallen on deaf ears.

“They were not even able to arrest the truck driver,” said Bablu Bauri of Gopalpur.

The mob allowed the police to take 20 injured passengers to hospital but refused to let go of the two killed on the spot.

District police officers promised to deploy traffic guards on the stretch but the villagers refused to move. They set the truck on fire around 9am and hurled stones at the police.

The police had to resort to a baton charge and burst tear gas shells to finally disperse the mob around 11.