Two women pilgrims were crushed to death and 12 others, including two children, suffered injuries when the van in which they were returning home after paying a pilgrimage to the Velankanni Shrine in Nagapattinam met with an accident at Sayalkudi on Sunday.
Police said the pilgrims from Anthoniyarpuram in Thoothukudi were returning from Nagapattinam after offering worship at the shrine when the van in which they were travelling rammed a stationary police van near Thevar statue in Sayalkudi police limit on Sunday morning.
Police identified the deceased as S. Pechiammal (45) and R. Malliga (80). The injured — two children, six men, including the driver of the van and four women — were admitted to the Kadaladi government hospital. They visited the shrine on Saturday and returned home at the early hours of Sunday, police said.
Death anniversary of Immanuel Sekaran
The police van, carrying food packets to be distributed to policemen on picketing for the death anniversary of Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran, was parked on the roadside near the Thevar statue when the pilgrims’ van rammed into it.
The policemen in the police vehicle had left to distribute food packets and no one was present in it, police added.
