Bhubaneswar: One person died when a luxury car rammed into a roadside tree near Kushabhadra Bridge on the Marine Drive between Puri and Konark in the early hours of Monday.

Police have begun a probe into allegations that a drag race between the BMW and an Audi caused the accident. Three other passengers of the BMW suffered critical injuries.

The accident took place around 3.30am when the victims were returning from Puri. The victims hailed from various parts of Bhubaneswar and were in Puri to celebrate the birthday of one of the injured. The deceased has been identified as Nandakishore Mohapatra, 42, a resident of Ashok Nagar. The injured are Kalyan Keshari Samantray, 35, who was driving the vehicle, Suman Patra, 26 and Sonali Behera, 21. "Mohapatra was sitting in the front seat and both Samantray and Mohapatra remained stuck in the vehicle. We had to seek the help of fire personnel to rescue them from the mangled vehicle," said Ramachandi police station officer-in-charge Pramod Kumar Sahoo.