Vellore:
Seven persons were killed and two seriously injured when the lorry they were travelling in, overturned near Vellore on Thursday, police said.
A lorry was hired by villagers of Pallalakuppam near here to attend a cremation but en route, the driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle and it overturned on the open fields abutting the highway.
"We are interrogating the lorry driver Venkatesan on the cause of the accident," Police Superintendent, Vellore, P Vijaya Kumar told PTI.
The police official said the accident happened when the driver was negotiating a curve. "Vehicles were also coming from the opposite side, it is not known how it occurred."
At the time of the mishap, 42 persons were travelling in the lorry. Of them, three women and four men were killed.
A senior surgeon at the Vellore Government Medical College and Hospital said the condition of two women with injuries to the scalp was critical.
The rest were being treated now as in-patients, authorities said.