Honnavar: The evening hours in Honnavar turned horrific after a gas filled tanker and a passenger tempo had a ghastly collision, resulting in the death of five people and injuring more than 15 passengers. The accident happened on Karki NH66 in the outskirts of the town at around 6 PM.

Among the injured, few are reported critical.

The mishap took place when the tempo was on the way towards Honnavar from Kumta, while the speeding tanker was in the opposite direction. The impact of collision was such that three including mother-daughter were killed on the spot, while two others succumbed to the injuries in Honnavar hospital. The critically injured victims have been rushed to Manipal hospital for advanced treatment after providing first aid at Honnavar govt hospital.

The deceased are identified as driver Kamalakar Bhandari (50) of Baggon in Kumta, Mohan Mesta (50) of Karki in Honnavar, Simanth Madival (38) and her daughter Sinchana Madival (06) of Kumta and Nagraj Naik (26) of Honnavar.

Fortunately, though there was an heavy impact of collision, no leakage in gas was observed, which could otherwise have given a more ugly turn to the incident. Both the vehicles were seen damaged completely.

As the information was alerted, police personnel rushed to the spot and with the help of locals, shifted the injured to Honnavar govt hospital and the dead bodies were taken for post mortem. The traffic in the highway was made to flow after the accident vehicles were removed.

A case has been registered in Honnavar police station and further investigations are underway.