india

Updated: Feb 19, 2019 10:51 IST

A speeding truck ran into a baraat (marriage procession) in Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh district fatally hitting 13 people, four of them children, while leaving 18 others injured, police said Tuesday.

The accident happened near Ramdev temple on State Highway-113 Monday night when the truck, going to Banswara from Nimbahera, rammed into the marriage party moving on the roadside, Choti Sadri DSP Vijaypal Singh Sandhu said.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he was deeply saddened to hear about the accident. “My heartfelt condolences to the grieved families. I pray for speedy recovery of injured people (sic),” he tweeted.

He said the injured were rushed to a government hospital in Choti Sadri and later on 15 of them, who were critically hurt, were referred to a facilities in Udaipur. Nine of the deceased have been identified as: Daulatram (60), Bharat (30), Shubham (5), Chotu (5), Dilip (11), Arjun (15), Ishu (19), Ramesh (30) and Karan (28), police said. The DSP said the truck driver apparently could not see the procession.

He said the bodies are kept in a mortuary for postmortem and an investigation is underway.