Four persons were killed and one was seriously injured when their car rammed into a tractor-trolley on a highway in Maharashtra's Latur district in the early hours of Sunday, police said.
The accident occurred near Mahalangra village on the Latur-Nanded highway around 3 am, when the victims were travelling to a temple in Tuljapur, an official said.
The driver lost control of the vehicle and rammed into the tractor-trolley laden with sugarcane, he said.
The car's occupants, Monu Balaji Kotwal (27), Shivraj Harishchandra Lankadhai (26), Krishna Mandke (24) and Narman Rajaram Katre (33), were killed on the spot, the official said.
Another victim Shubham Lankadhai was seriously injured and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Latur, he said.
The men were residents of Nanded and were travelling to Tuljapur to visit a temple, the official said.
The impact of the accident was so severe that the front portion of the car was crushed and broken off, he said.
Earlier in February, at least five persons from Telangana were killed and six others injured when their Scorpio SUV plunged from a bridge into a local river near Moghali village of the district early.
The tragedy occurred when a family from Bhokar was returning to Vannel, Nizamabad in the adjoining state, after celebrating the first birthday of the daughter of a relative. As per preliminary investigations, the speeding SUV ran into a pothole and burst a tyre after which the driver lost control and it fell from the bridge into the river in pitch darkness.
