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Updated: May 14, 2019 20:03 IST

At least 15 persons of a marriage party were killed and five others received injuries when a multi-utility vehicle (MUV) which they were travelling in rammed a private bus at Veldurthi in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway (NH-44) on Saturday evening, the police said.

The victims belonged to Ramavaram village of Vaddepalli block of Telangana’s Jogulama Gadwal district. They were returning to their village after attending a function in Kurnool district, when the driver of the vehicle (Toofan model, an MUV) lost control of the steering while trying to avoid hitting a motor bike at Veldurthi crossroads.

“The vehicle jumped over the divider and rammed a private bus belonging to SRS Travels, travelling from Hyderabad to Manipal in Karnataka. There were at least 20 persons in the vehicle, all belonging to the same village. It is not exactly known whether they all belong to the same family or not,” a police official told the local reporters.

While 13 of them were crushed to death instantly, two others succumbed while being retrieved from the vehicle. Another five persons were being shifted to Kurnool government hospital when the reports last came in. Their condition is said to be very critical.

The police said some passengers in the bus also received injuries due to the impact of the accident, but were out of danger. “The accident happened due to over-speeding by the Toofan vehicle,” the police said.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao conveyed his condolences to the members of the bereaved families.

The chief minister instructed the district collector of Jogulamba Gadwal to provide better treatment to the injured who were admitted in Kurnool hospital.

YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy also expressed shock over the incident and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families.