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Updated: May 22, 2019 10:43 IST

Four students were killed after a car they were travelling in lost control and rammed a stationary mini-truck on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway near the Baghpat-Ghaziabad border on Tuesday, police said. A fifth person who was with the group was critically injured.

All five were studying medicine at Sharda University in Greater Noida and were coming back from a holiday in Himachal Pradesh when the accident took place in western Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district.

“The four students died on impact as the car was badly damaged. One of the eyewitnesses at the spot said the car was travelling at a speed of about 120-130kmph. Suddenly, the driver applied brakes, probably after the driver saw a mini-truck parked on the left,” said Umesh Roria, station house officer (SHO), Chandinagar police station.

Though the driver applied brakes about 50 metres from the vehicle, the SHO added, the car lost control. “The car overturned, skidded and rammed the rear of the truck. The car was badly damaged. Our response vehicle was nearby and rushed to the spot, but four students died on the spot. The fifth student, a woman who sustained severe injuries, was admitted to a hospital in Delhi,” he said.

Police identified the deceased as Karishma Dhingra from Delhi, Kant Dhingra from Ludhiana, Shoaib from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, and Abhishek Soni from Ganga Nagar in Rajasthan. The injured student was identified as Anchal Rana from Moradabad, whose father is a police inspector posted at the Rampur crime records bureau, police said.

“Our personnel from the Chandinagar police station rushed to the spot, which is close to Ghaziabad district, and pulled out the injured students… They were probably returning from a holiday from Himachal Pradesh and were headed from Kondli towards Ghaziabad when the accident took place,” said Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional superintendent of police, Baghpat. The driver of the mini-truck fled soon after the accident. Police have seized the vehicle.

The management of Sharda University said all five were third-year MBBS students. While Anchal Rana and Abhishek Soni lived at the varsity’s Indira Hospital premises, the three others lived in a PG accommodation.

“They had not informed the university management about their journey. On Tuesday, we received information about the accident and we immediately sent a team to Baghpat to facilitate the process,” Ajit Kumar, joint registrar and public relations officer at Sharda University, said. “We are extending all support to the families of the students,” he added.