Bhubaneswar, Nov 2 (IANS): As many as two persons died following a head-on collision between a bike and auto rickshaw near Kandeswara village in the Digapahandi area of Ganjam district in Odisha on Saturday.

The deceased were identified as Simanchal Reddy and Kunti Gaud of the Kandeswar village.

The duo was reportedly going to their agriculture farm when a speeding auto-rickshaw hit their two-wheeler near their village on Saturday afternoon. The duo was rushed to a nearby hospital where a doctor declared them ‘brought dead’. Their body was handed over to the family members after post-mortem.

The passengers travelling in the auto-rickshaw have also sustained minor injuries.

In another tragic incident, as many as five persons were killed in a road accident in the Hemagiri police station area of Sundargarh district during the wee hours on Saturday. Four of the deceased hailed from the Hemagiri area while the driver of the vehicle was a resident of Chakrapalli village in neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

“Ten devotional singers of a Kirtan troupe had gone to the deceased driver’s village in neighbouring Chhattisgarh to perform on the occasion of his father’s funeral rituals. The group was returning home after performing in the four-wheeler of the deceased driver Late Saturday night when their vehicle rammed into a stationary trawler parked on the roadside at Gaikanpalli under Hemagairi police limits,” said local police sources.

The injured persons were rushed to the Community Health Center, Hemagiri where the doctors declared five persons including the driver dead.

The condition of two out of the six other passengers who have been admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH), Sundargarh is said to be critical.

Though police are yet to confirm the reason behind the tragic road mishap, local sources claimed that poor visibility due to dense fog was the reason behind the accident. The villagers also held coal-laden trucks plying on the road responsible for several accidents in the area.