Chanditala (Hooghly), Aug. 6: Twelve pilgrims sleeping on a highway died when their stationary bus, hit by a truck from the rear, ran over them.

Ten pilgrims and the bus driver died on the spot. Two more died in a hospital.

The bus, with 33 more pilgrims in it, rolled into a roadside ditch. Ten persons suffered serious injuries.

The pilgrims, mostly from Kaimur and Rohtas in Bihar, were coming to the Kalighat temple from Deoghar, when around 2am their bus broke down at Kapashheria in Hooghly on the Durgapur Expressway.

A dozen got off, rolled out a plastic sheet in front of the vehicle and went to sleep.

The driver, 30-year-old Raju, slid under the bus to repair the vehicle while the cleaner waited inside.

While the repair work was on, a sand-laden truck hit the stationary bus from the rear. It lurched forward and ran over the 12 on the road and the driver before falling into the ditch.

Bimalesh Kumar of Kaimur, who was asleep in the bus, said he heard a deafening crash. “Suddenly, there was a loud crash and I was jolted out my seat with all the other passengers.” He got two stitches on his right eyebrow.

Another passenger, 33-year-old Ashoke Chowdhury from Sasaram, had a lucky escape because he was not on the bus when the truck rammed into it. But Ruby, his five-year-old daughter, was on it and bruised her forehead.

With no house near the accident spot, about 36km from Calcutta, help took long to come as the passengers screamed in panic.

A police patrol that crossed the site after half an hour informed the local Chanditala police station of the accident.

Additional superintendent of police, Debashish Boral, said the truck driver was seriously injured and could not be questioned.

The dead were identified as Satyendra Shau, 30, Jang Bahadur Singh, 35, Umesh Kumar Singh, 23, Jungli Chauhan, 27, Pappu Singh, 30, Shyambehari Singh, 35, Manoj Kumar Singh, 23, Jitendra Singh, 23, Sailendra Kumar Singh, 30, Amarnath Mishra, 30, Raju, Bateswar Singh Yadav, 35, and Rajendra Singh, 33.