Sangli, May 29 (IANS): Six members of a family were killed and a woman was seriously injured when the car in which they were travelling plunged into a dry canal near Tasgaon on Wednesday, a police official said.

According to Shivaji Mandle, the on-duty officer of Tasgaon Police Station, the crash took place on Tasgaon-Manerajuri Road around 1.30 a.m. when the speeding Alto car plunged into the Tasari Canal in the darkness.

As the canal was dry owing to the end of the summer season, the car crashed with full force on the canal bed around 10 metres below and its front portion was badly crushed.

The occupant family was returning to Tasgaon from Kavathe-Mahankal where they had gone to celebrate the birthday of one of the daughters -- among the deceased.

Though the exact cause of the accident was being investigated, a preliminary probe indicated that the vehicle driver from among the family members, may have dozed off at the wheel at that hour.

The injured victims lay in the inky darkness of the canal, much below the road level, for several hours, screaming for help but there was nobody to hear them or render assistance.

It was only around dawn that a local villager spotted the tragedy and sounded an alert, informed the police and organized rescue work by 6.30 a.m., said Mandle.

The rescuers rushed the sole survivor Swapnali V. Bhonsle, 30, to the LifeCare Hospital in Tasgaon with severe injuries, Mandle added, and the legal formalities are being carried out.

The other victims who perished in the accident are identified as Rajendra J. Patil 60, his wife Sujata R. Patil, 55, their daughter Priyanka A. Kharade, 30, grandchildren Dhruva, 3, Rajvi, 2 and 1-year-old Kartiki.

A crane has been requisitioned to remove the car from the canal bed, the bodies have been sent for autopsy and further probe is underway, said Mandle.