The accident spot .

Bhubaneswar, April 24: Seven persons, including six students appearing for the ongoing matriculation examinations, died and three others suffered injuries in a road mishap at Nayagarh on NH-57, about 110 kilometres away from here.

The mishap occurred around 9am when 11 students were returning from Nuagaon in a van after writing their examination papers. The van, in which they were travelling, had a head-on collision with a truck coming from the opposite side.

While four students and the van driver, Alok Panda, 28, died on the spot, another student succumbed to injuries at the district headquarters hospital at Nayagarh. Later, another student died near Khandagiri while being shifted to Capital Hospital here. Only one student escaped unhurt where the rest three injured were admitted to Capital Hospital. One of the injured was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack as his condition deteriorated.

Mousumi Maharana, who suffered injuries on her head, said they were returning home from their examination centre when a speeding truck hit their vehicle from the opposite side. “My head hit the van’s door and I fell unconscious. Later, when I gained consciousness, I found myself in the hospital,” said Maharana. She is being treated at Capital Hospital here. Doctors at the hospital said a CT scan would be conducted on her to find out if there are any internal injuries.

All the students belong to Chintamani High School of Sanpada and they were appearing the matriculation examination at a Nuagaon examination centre. All of them had written their life science exam papers today.

The deceased were identified as Babu Baral, Nidrabati Bhuyan, Rabindra Pradhan, Jyotsnarani Moharana, Pinki Tripathy and Pratap Mohanty.

An eyewitness said the van, in a bid to save a cyclist coming from the opposite side, lost its balance and collided with the truck.

Tension prevailed at the spot after local residents tried to set the truck on fire. Nuagaon police, however, prevented them from torching the vehicle. Nayagarh police superintendent Seshadev Mallick said the truck driver had been arrested. “ We have seized the vehicles and have started an inquiry,” he said.