Kolkata, Feb 20 (IANS): Two persons were killed and six others severely injured in a road accident at Kulti in the West Burdwan district of West Bengal after a vehicle carrying passengers to Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj collided with a truck.

According to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kolkata) of Asansol-Durgapur Police Commiserate Jabed Hossain, the accident took place on National Highways (NH)-19 when the passenger vehicle collided at full speed with a truck from the latter’s rear end late Wednesday night.

“The passenger vehicle was coming from Bankura and was going to Prayagraj. As far as the latest information available, two passengers travelling in that vehicle had died. The speed of the vehicle was quite high. Further investigation is on,” he added.

Eyewitnesses, however, said that the truck suddenly stopped to change lanes on National Highway near Kulti and during that period the passenger vehicle collided with the truck from the rear end.

The impact of the collision was such that the passenger vehicle got totally mangled. The police have seized both the passenger vehicle as well as the truck against which it collided. The driver of the truck and his assistant are, however, missing.

The two deceased persons have been identified as Shantanu Mukhopadhyay (65) and Sailen Bandopadhyay (60). Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem purposes.

The six others injured in the accident are Sourav Mukhopadhyay, Manasha Mukhopadhyay, Ananya Mukhopadhyay, Rumpa Bandopadhyay, Siluli Karmakar and Somnath Chakraborty. The deceased and the injured persons were all connected by family links.

Chakraborty was the driver of the vehicle. All of them have been admitted to a local hospital where they are currently under treatment. The condition of Karmakar was critical, a commiserate official.