4 students killed in accident at Ujjain

Ujjain, Aug 23: Four students were killed on their way to school and 11 others were injured after their jeep collided head-on with a truck in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district on Monday, a police official said.

The accident took place around 7 am near Jhirniya Fata in Unhel town when the students were on way to the Fatima Convent School, Nagda, Ujjain's Superintendent of Police Satyendra Shukla said, according to news agency PTI.

The injured students got trapped in the jeep and were taken out after major efforts by police and locals, according to eyewitnesses.

Three of the injured students were referred to a hospital in Indore and the others were undergoing treatment in local hospitals, an official said. The killed students were in the age group of 6 to 18 years, Mr Shukla said.

The truck and jeep drivers were taken into custody, he added. Later, the school principal in a statement said the jeep in which the students were travelling did not belong to the school and it was hired by parents for ferrying their wards.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath expressed grief over the incident.