Jodhpur: Four persons died while four others were injured near Dangiawas in this district on Tuesday afternoon when a Scorpio rammed into a new oil tanker head on, police said.

The injured were rushed to the MDM Hospital in Jodhpur where their condition is said to be serious, they said.

The deceased belonged to village Jhalamand in Jodhpur district and were returning from Bilara, while the tanker had been heading to a mechanic shop. The tanker was newly purchased and had hit the road for the first time after construction, the police said.

According to the SHO (Dangiawas) Suresh Choudhary, a Scorpio vehicle with 5 persons in it, was coming to Jodhpur from Bilara. "It was on its way to Jhalamand through the by-pass.

When it reached near the village Jalelit Fauzdar at about 2.40 pm, it collided head on with an empty oil tanker," said Choudhary adding that four persons in the Scorpio died on the spot.

The deceased were identified as Bheenv Raj (24), Prakash (28), Sayari Devi (65) and Jyoti (40), while the injured have been identified as Arjun, Ashok, Ranaram and Ashish.

The collision turned the Scorpio into a mangled mass of iron. Villagers and the police had a tough time to exttact bodies from the vehicle.

The cabin part of the tanker also got badly damaged crushing the lower parts of the body of all three persons inside, officials said.

Choudhary said that an investigation has been initiated into the matter in order to ascertain the cause of the accident.  PTI