17 devotees killed in Punjab accident

Moga (Punjab), May 7 (IANS) At least 17 people, including five women and five children, were killed early Monday in a head-on collision between a jeep and a truck near Punjab's Moga town, 170 km from Chandigarh, police said.

The victims, who were devotees from Daulatpura village in Moga district, were returning from a shrine in Nanaksar near Jagraon town.

The accident took place on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur highway around 2 a.m.

Police said 14 people were killed on the spot while three others died in a hospital in Moga.

'All the occupants travelling in the jeep were killed in the accident,' a police official at the site said.

Police said the speeding truck, which was trying to overtake another vehicle, collided head-on with the jeep.

The truck driver fled the spot, leaving his vehicle behind.