Daijiworld Media Network - Hassan (SP)

Hassan, Sep 25: In a macabre accident that occurred at Noranakki Gate on Channarayapatna-Holenarasipur road in the district on Thursday September 24 evening, six pilgrims were turned into corpses while 13 others were injured, most of them seriously.

15 persons from Kavitala village in Manvi taluk of Raichur district were on a pilgrimage in a Tempo Trax vehicle. They were going to Tirupati after visiting Sringeri, when tragedy struck. The tempo driver was trying to overtake a bullock cart near Noranakki Gate, when he saw an oncoming Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus and tried to avoid colliding with it. The vehicle hit the bullock cart as well as the KSRTC bus in the bargain, it is gathered.

Five persons travelling in the tempo including its driver Swami and Bore Gowda, a resident of N Bindenahalli village of Channarayapatna taluk, who was in the bullock cart, died on the spot. Both the bullocks too lost their lives in the accident.

All the other 11 pilgrims travelling in the tempo suffered critical injuries. They were admitted into a hospital in Hassan for treatment.