All four people involved in the rescue were charred to death.(Representational)
As many as four people were killed and one was critically injured after an oil tanker at village Itamati in Odisha's Nayagarh exploded on Saturday morning.
According to the reports, the incident took place when local residents reached the place where the tanker slid off the Bada Pandusara bridge at Itamati.
The tanker was arriving from Paradip at around 1:45 AM when the driver lost control over it and fell off after hitting the bridge's fence.
After the incident, the locals rushed to the spot to launch a rescue operation, but the oil tanker exploded while the operation was underway. All four people involved in the rescue were charred to death.
"At about 2 AM, two trucks carrying diesel and petrol were coming from Paradip to Nayagarh side when one of them hit the wall of a bridge near Bada Pandusara and fell into the river," Superintendent of Nayagarh Police, Alekha Chandra Pahi told news agency ANI.
"Meanwhile, the staff of the second tanker went to rescue the members of the first tanker, when a sudden explosion took place and four persons died, while one received severe injuries," he added.
The dead have been identified as Pankaj Nayaj, Dipu Khatua, Sameer Nayak and Chandan Khatua, while Rakesh Samantray was shifted to Bhubaneswar hospital after his conditions deteriorated at Nayagarh district headquarters hospital.
The Itamati Police have registered a case in the matter.
Further investigation is going on.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)