Karur, July 22, 2013: Two pilgrims on travelling foot from Maharashtra were killed in a road accident near Aravakurichi in Karur district on Sunday.

Mahesh Prabhakar Chavan (23) and Arun Umarkar (24) of Wasim Nagar in Maharashtra, part of a group of nine pilgrims on travelling on foot leading a Shiva Rath from their place to Rameswaram and back, were killed on the spot when a truck transporting yarn from Rajapalayam to Mumbai hit them near Vengakalmedu on the Karur-Madurai NH 7.

The dead were removed to Karur Government Hospital for post-mortem.

As eager onlookers crowded the accident spot on the highway, traffic was disrupted. As the corpses were shifted to Karur, a truck from Nagercoil to Salem driven by Kondama Naicker (50) of Rasipuram in Namakkal district rammed another truck from Ramanathapuram to Dharmapuri that had halted suddenly. In the melee, Mr. Naicker and his assistant Venkatesh (21) of Thuraiyur were injured and were rushed to the government hospital in Karur for treatment.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 22, 2013.