Six persons were killed and 11 others injured when the overcrowded auto rickshaw they were travelling by collided with a cotton-laden truck at Kothapeta, 5 km from Rayagada, the district Headquarters in Odisha at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
While three women and two minor children were killed on the spot, one Janardhana Rao, a native of Parasuramapuram village in Komarada mandal in Vizianagaram District died during treatment in a hospital in Rayagada.
Soon after the accident, a CRPF truck shifted the injured to the hospital, an eye witness who was at the spot told The Hindu over phone. Of the 11 injured, five were admitted to KGH, Visakhapatnam, where the condition of three persons was stated to be critical.
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The others were being treated in a hospital at Rayagada. All the passengers boarded the ill-fated auto at Kommuguda village to partake in a lunch at Kothapeta.