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Updated: Nov 08, 2019 21:58 IST

At least 12 people, including eight women, were killed and three others injured on Friday when a container truck rammed into a van in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district on the Bengaluru-Chennai National Highway, police said.

Chittoor’s superintendent of police S Senthil Kumar said while speaking to HT the driver of the container heading from Palani lost control of the vehicle, hit the median and collided with a Maruti Omni van coming from the opposite direction of NH-75 at Mogilighat village of Bangaru Palyam block.

“The container also overturned and fell on the van. The driver and all the passengers in the van died on the spot. The condition of the (truck’s) cleaner, who was also injured, is critical,” Kumar said.

Apart from the cleaner, two others also were injured and were immediately shifted to the government hospital at Palamaneru for treatment.

Kumar said all those travelling in the van, supposed to be from the same family, were from Gangavaram block in Chittoor district.

“The details of the deceased and injured are not yet known. The bodies in the van are completely mangled. We have shifted them to the nearby hospital for post-mortem,” he said.

An auto-rickshaw and a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction also collided with the container truck when it overturned.

“The exact reason for the accident is not known, but it appears the container truck had a brake failure,” the police official said.

Chittoor’s district collector Bharat Gupta has rushed to the spot to oversee the rescue operations.