Five Sabarimala devotees of Kosavampatti village near here, including three of the same family, were killed in a road accident involving a car and a sand-laden lorry on the Namakkal — Paramathi road in the small hours of Sunday.
A group of seven persons of Kosavampatti left for Sabarimala in a car on Friday.
They were returning home, when the car collided head-on with a lorry near the military canteen in the town at 2.30 a.m.
Ravi (42) and his two sons — Vigneswaran (21), a BE student, and Karthi, a student of Class IX, Naveen Kumar (13), also studying Class IX, son of Saravanan and Ramathilagam, car driver, were killed on the spot.
The other three occupants of the car Saravanan (45), Vignesh Raja (22) and Vijayakumar (19), suffered serious injuries.
The police and fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot, rescued the injured and shifted them to the Government Hospital for treatment.
The five bodies were also sent to the GH for post-mortem examination.
Search onNamakkal police have registered a case and are on the lookout for the lorry driver who is at large.
V. Dakshinamoorthy, District Collector, visited the injured in the hospital.