Five from State killed in road accident

PALANI: Five persons, including three women, were killed when their van slipped at a bend on Palani-Kodaikanal Ghat Road near here on Sunday evening.

Two of them died on the way to hospital and three others succumbed to their injuries at Palani Government Hospital. The deceased were Padmini (50), wife of Damodaran, and Kumar (55), his wife Ilasini (50), Ranjani (25), wife of Rithish, and S. Unni Nair (50), all from Kozhikode in Kerala.

The police said that the van lost control and rolled on a 300 ft slope. Almost all people in the van received head injuries and fractures on limbs. They were returning to Kozhikode from Kodaikanal.

The bodies were kept at Palani Government Hospital for post-mortem. Eleven injured were also admitted to the same hospital for treatment.

Sixteen people, including five women and two children, were travelling in the van.

A special police team had rescued all the injured and rushed them to the hospital immediately. But many tourists, with head injuries, were in critical condition