Fourteen people, including six children, were killed when the SUV they were travelling in crashed into a parked truck near Manikpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh district. All the deceased were members of a marriage party and there were no survivors, said police.
The incident took place on the Prayagraj-Lucknow highway around Thursday midnight.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the accident and has directed officials to provide all help to the families of the victims. He also announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for the next of kin of the deceased.
The police had to use gas cutters to retrieve the bodies from the vehicle that had turned into a mangled heap of iron. It took more than three hours to get the bodies out.
Additional Superintendent of Police Anurag Arya said all 14 bodies had been sent for post-mortem.
All the deceased were residents of Kunda in Pratapgarh and were returning after attending a marriage in Nawabganj area.
Reports said that the driver of the SUV probably fell asleep which led to the accident.
