Karnal: At least seven people died and 13 were injured when the pickup van they were travelling in collided with a truck near Dhakwala village in Karnal district on Monday morning.

Karnal: At least seven people died and 13 were injured when the pickup van they were travelling in collided with a truck near Dhakwala village in Karnal district on Monday morning.

According to the police, the deceased were returning from Haridwar have been identified as Rajat, Sudhakar, Inder Singh, Ranjeet, Sanjeev, Vikash and Ravinder, residents of Karnal. An eye witness said the accident took place at around 7am as the truck and pickup van collided head-on.

The injured have been admitted to Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College and their condition is said to be stable. As per sources, 22 people were travelling in the van.

Locals said the area is accident-prone and accidents frequently take place due to heavy traffic on the road, which connects Haryana to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The truck driver fled the spot. Police have registered a case of under Section 304 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “Soon after we got information about the accident, we reached the spot. Currently, we do not know exactly how the accident took place,” said Bhupinder Singh, a Karnal police officer.

“One person died on the spot and others were declared dead at the hospital,” he said.