Eleven persons, including three women and six children, were charred to death and 42 injured today when two trucks caught fire after a head-on collision at Kalledevarapura, 70 kms from here, police said.
The victims were returning from Mandya to their village in Kudligi Taluk in Bellary District in one of the trucks while the other was transporting new two-wheelers from Sholapur to Bangalore when the mishap occurred in the early hours on the National Highway 13.
All the injured, including three with serious burns, had been admitted to Jagalur and Davangere hospitals, the police said, adding several two-wheelers were also gutted in the fire.
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Fire tenders from Jagalur were rushed to the spot which took nearly an hour to extinguish the fire.
The driver of the truck that carried the villagers was among the deceased. The six children who died were aged between one and seven, the police said, adding a hunt was on to arrest the driver of the other truck.
Meanwhile, IGP (Eastern Range) H. N. S. Rao and Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil visited the spot and took stock of the situation.
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