KOTTAYAM: Eight Indians, including two natives of Kottayam, were killed in Nottingham, UK, when a minibus which they were travelling in collided with two lorries on the busiest M1 motorway on Saturday.
The deceased Keralites were identified as Cyriac Joseph, alias Benny, 52, of Kadukkunnel House, Cherppunkal, Pala, and Rishi Rajeev, 28, of Eruppapuzha House, Channnanikkad, near Kottayam.
Four others, including a five-year-old girl, were seriously injured in the accident.
As per the available reports, employees at IT firm Wipro and their family members were in the vehicle, which was driven by Joseph, who ran the ABC minibus company in Nottingham.
The minibus was hired by a 12-member team of Indians travelling from Hyson Green in Nottingham to Wembley in North-West London. From there, they were planning to go on a trip across Europe.
Cyriac, who had been in UK for more than five years, was an active member of the Malayali organisations in Nottingham. His wife Ancy, hailing from Thadathil family, Veliyannoor, near Ettumanoor, is a staff nurse at Nottingham City hospital. Benson and Benita are their children.
Ancy and children were back in the UK after a brief a visit in Kerala recently and Cyriac was planning to come home on September 4.
A former leader of the Kerala Congress (M)’s students’ wing KSC (M), Cyriac also served as the Notinghamshire unit president of Kerala Congress (M), Nottingham Malayali Association president and Nottingham Syro Malabar Mass Center trusty.
Rishi had arrived in Nottingham in January on a one-year deputation from Wipro’s Bangalore unit. He was the son of Rajeev Kumar and Usha. He was unmarried.
According to relatives, efforts are on to bring back the mortal remains of the deceased persons.
According to reports from UK, the fatal crash was the deadliest since 1993, when 12 school children and a teacher died in a minibus accident on the M40 motorway.