Four persons were killed on the spot and three severely injured after a tanker collided head-on with an ambulance ferrying a dead body, on National Highway 9 near Molakera village in the taluk on Wednesday morning.
The ambulance was completely mangled due to the impact of the accident.
The ambulance was on its way to Hyderabad from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, while the tanker was heading to Mumbai from Hyderabad.
The police have identified the deceased as Savita Jitendra Khode, 27, Deepak Munnalasab Kamble, 42, Rekhabai Sopaan Sarnaik, 40, all residents of Haseenapur near Hyderabad, and Rajendra Muralidhar, 40, the driver of the ambulance.
The injured, Kamalabai Deepak, Deepak Ashok and ambulance cleaner Harish have been admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad, the police added.
Barring the ambulance driver and cleaner, the other victims, all natives of Andhra Pradesh, had migrated to Aurangabad in search of jobs.
Jitendra Khode, husband of Savita, was unwell and had passed away at a hospital in Aurangabad. Savita, along with her relatives and friends, was taking the body to Haseenapur in Hyderabad for cremation when the accident occurred, the police said.
The driver and the cleaner of the tanker abandoned the vehicle and fled the spot. Senior police officers visited the spot. A case has been registered at the Humnabad police station.
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