Chennai: In an early morning shocking incident, 19 people were killed after a KSRTC air bus collided with a container lorry near Coimbatore on Thursday. The bus was heading towards Ernakulam from Bengaluru.

The KSRTC AC volvo bus which left Bangalore on Wednesday night met with the accident at Avinashi near Coimbatore.

The bus was going to Ernakulam from Bengaluru, while the lorry was coming from the opposite direction on the Coimbatore-Salem Highway when the mishap occurred at 4.30 am, police said.

Conductor and Driver who died in the mishap

There were 48 people travelling in the bus. Most of them were from Thrissur, Palakkad and Ernakulam. 10 people died on the spot. The conductor and driver were also killed in the accident.

KSRTC bus and container lorry which met with the accident

According to reports, 23 people were injured in the accident. More details of the injured are still awaited.

It is learnt that the container lorry, which had Kerala registration, suffered a tyre blowout and lost control. Initial reports said that it went and plumaged into the oncoming Volvo bus. The driver and the conductor of the KSRTC bus is learnt to have died on the spot itself. The deceased were identified as T D Gireesh and Baiju. The injured were rushed to the Avinashi government hospital. The bus belonged to the Ernakulam depot.

The bodies were shifted to Tirupur and Coimbatore.

As the bus was from Bengaluru to Ernakulam, it is assumed that most of the passengers would be Keralites.

A KSRTC team from Palakkad will reach the accident site very soon to monitor the situation.

Rescue operations were delayed as the accident took place in a remote area at midnight. At first, the local natives were alerted about the accident and rushed to the spot Fire and Rescue personnel and police arrived on the spot as informed by the natives.