Eleven people, including women and children were hurt, four of them seriously, when a van in which they were travelling rammed into the wall of a culvert at Guduvanchery on Grand Southern Trunk Road early on Tuesday morning.
The Kancheepuram district police said Dharmalingam and a group of 12 other people, living in a camp for Sri Lankan refugees in Sivagangai district, were on their way to Gummidipoondi to attend the seemandham function of a relative. At Guduvanchery, the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle and rammed the van into the wall of the culvert. Eleven of the passengers in the van were hurt. Manikandan, the van driver, was drowsy and had lost control for a moment, the police said. While seven of them were discharged after treatment at the primary health centre in Guduvanchery, four others who had sustained serious injuries were referred to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai.