Kendrapara: Five persons of a dance group were killed after the car in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary truck near Alabanka Chhak on NH 5 in Kendrapara district late on Sunday.
Four among the deceased persons have been identified as Rajesh Jena of Gupti village in Rajnagar block, Debashis Sethi and Dipak Dhal of Belatala village in Pattamundai block, and Trishu Sahu (driver).
According to sources, the accident took place at around 1.30 pm when six members of the group were returning to Kendrapara from Panikoili in Jajpur district after watching an opera. The car was badly mangled after hitting the truck and the five were crushed to death inside the vehicle.
On being informed, police and fire personnel reached the spot and rescued the injured identified as Sangram Mallick of Angul, after cutting a portion of the vehicle with the gas cutter.
The injured youth was initially rushed to Kendrapara district headquarters hospital and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after his health condition deteriorated.
Of the five deceased, Debashis was a teacher at Royal Dance Academy in Kendrapara while Rajesh, who works in a private company in Chennai, was a permanent member of the Academy.
Police suspect that the accident took place after the driver lost control over the vehicle due to over-speeding.
“The postmortem of the deceased will be conducted at the district headquarters hospital on Monday after which they will be handed over to the family members,” said IIC of Derabis Police Station, Sudhir Kumar Sahu.
