PTI
 
Kancheepuram, Oct 31: Eighteen persons, including 14 women, were killed when a train smashed into an autorickshaw at an unmanned level crossing near Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, police said.

The victims from Orikkai village were on their way to the funeral of a woman in Pudupakkam, about 10 km from Kancheepuram, when the accident occurred.

The daughter and granddaughter of the dead woman were among those killed in the accident, police said.

The autorickshaw in which the victims were travelling was going through the crossing when it broke down and got stuck on the tracks.

Soon thereafter, the suburban electric train from Tirumalpur to Chennai Beach rammed into the autorickshaw, killing all its occupants, including the driver, police said.

Kancheepuram's superintendent of police A Amalraj said that 18 bodies had been recovered.

The impact was so severe that the auto was pushed and dragged for nearly a kilometre before the train stopped and the bodies were badly mutilated, police said.