Three youths were killed after the bike they were riding collided head-on with a passenger bus on Ring Road near Dumri village, about 15km from Ranchi city, on Tuesday.

The deceased weren't identified till the time of going to press.

Unconfirmed sources said that the victims of the mishap, which took place at 4.30pm under Tupudana police station area, were in their early 30s. Two of them were from Hesapiri and Arki villages of Khunti district.

A local resident, who reached the spot after the mishap, said the youths were not wearing a helmet.

The bus involved in the accident was heading towards Khunti from Ranchi.

Officer-in-charge of Tupudana police station Sanjay Kumar said the bodies had been brought to Tupudana police station from where they would be sent to RIMS for post-mortem on Wednesday.

The OC was, however, not able to throw much light on the accident. "There is no eyewitness account of the accident as it happened at a place which is located far from residential areas," he said.

However, a police officer at Torpa, about 40km from Ring Road, said, "Gaurav Bus with 20 passengers is involved in the accident," adding that during a routine check near Churki River, the driver fled after he was asked to stop.

"We could not understand why the driver of a passenger bus would escape when a routine check is conducted. But, later someone among the passengers said that the bus had hit a motorbike near Ranchi. The bus was then seized," the police officer said.