Five persons were killed when the e-rickshaw that they were in collided head on with a truck outside Burdwan town on Burdwan-Bolpur national highway 2B early on Monday.

Police sources said the deceased were Ganga Santra, 65, Saraswati Santra, 59, Sima Santra, 32, Mamani Santra, 29, and Mahinuddin Midya, 36.

The first four victims are from the same family and residents of East Burdwan’s Palitpur. Midya is the driver of the three-wheeler, locally called toto.

Sources said Ganga, along with his wife Saraswati and daughters-in-law Mamani and Sima, were going to Talit to catch fish from a pond.

Police sources said a truck coming from the opposite direction suddenly lost control and fell on the toto. Police said they were probing the cause of the accident. “The truck driver may have dozed off or the vehicle may have developed some technical snag,” a police source said.

The truck has been but its driver managed to flee.