NEW DELHI, India -- At least seven people were killed and eight others injured Sunday in a head-on collision between two vehicles in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The accident took place at Boargoan in Kondagaon district, about 188 km south of Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh.
"Today a collision took place between an auto carrying 15 people and a car at Boargoan here. Seven people were killed and eight others wounded, some of them critically," a senior police official in Kondagaon said. "The injured were immediately removed to the nearest hospital, wherefrom they were referred to Raipur." According to the official, the victims belonged to a single-family and were returning after attending a condolence meeting.
Police said the impact of the collision badly mangled the auto.
Police have registered a case and ordered an investigation to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Deadly road accidents are common in India often caused due to overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.
Around 150,000 people are killed every year in around half a million road accidents across India, officials said India's federal minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari recently said the government has set a target to reduce road accident deaths by 50 percent by 2024.