Chennai, Feb 15 (BPNS)

A road accident on early Tuesday morning claimed the lives of three pilgrims including a woman who was on a visit to Arulmigu Mariamman temple at Samayapuram, Tiruchi. The pilgrims were walking from Ayyalur and Vedasandur in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu and they were mowed down by a truck carrying vegetables from the Oddanchatram market hit them from behind at the Tiruchi- Dindigul high way.

According to Manapparai police, the incident occurred at around 2 am on Tuesday. Two men, S. Tirunnavakkarasu (40) and P. Sekar (27) died on the spot. The woman, V. Kaleswari (32) died at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital, Tiruchi.

Four others are grievously injured in the accident.

The truck driver is arrested and is under the custody of the Manapparai police and has registered a case against him. Police sources told IANS that the pilgrims were walking in a stretch of road which was poorly lit when the truck hit them from behind. The walkers did not have any torch lights or reflective stickers on the body and Police said that the driver had confirmed that the accident occurred due to poor visibility.

Police have registered a case and commenced an inquiry. The body of the three is at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial medical college hospital for postmortem and will be handed over to the relatives after the inquest process is completed.