Seven dead, nine injured in autorickshaw-SUV collision

Kondagaon Sep 19: Nine members of a family, including four women and a one-year-old girl, were killed and seven others injured on Sunday after the autorickshaw they were travelling in collided with an SUV in Kondagaon district, police said.
The accident occurred near Borgaon turn under the Farasgaon police station limits, over 200 km away from Raipur, when the occupants of the autorickshaw were returning to their native place Pandeaath after attending a funeral in Godma village, an official said. The SUV was heading towards Jagdalpur.
Seven occupants in the autorickshaw, including the driver, were killed on the spot. One more person died at the Farasgaon hospital while another succumbed to injuries while being shifted to Raipur,, he added.
After the accident, the occupants of the SUV fled the spot, the official said.
Of the seven injured, three critically injured persons were referred to Raipur while four others were admitted at Kondagaon hospital, he added. “All the victims belonged to the same family. Their bodies were shifted to the hospital for postmortem,” he said, adding that efforts are on to trace absconding occupants of the SUV.