Nine people were killed in a head-on collision between a car and a truck on National Highway 18 in West Bengal’s Purulia district on Friday morning, police said.
The accident took place around 6.30 am near Namshol village under the Balarampur police station limits, an officer said.
"The head-on collision occurred between a Bolero SUV and a truck on the highway, resulting in the deaths of all nine occupants of the four-wheeler," Balarampur Police Station in-charge Soumyadeep Mallick told PTI.
According to police sources, the victims were returning from a wedding ceremony.
They were travelling from Adabana village under the Barabazar police station jurisdiction in Purulia to Tilaitand in the Nimdih police station area of neighbouring Jharkhand, when the accident occurred.
The impact of the collision was so severe that the SUV was mangled. Locals and emergency responders rushed to the spot and took the victims to a nearby primary health centre, where doctors declared all of them dead, the police said.
Preliminary investigations suggest overspeeding and possible negligence as contributing factors to the accident, he said.
A case has been registered and further investigation is underway, the police added.