At least seven pilgrims including three women were killed and 12 others severely injured in Ayodhya after being run over by an over-speeding truck early this morning, police said.
The devotees, who had come here on the occasion of Sawan Jhula Mela, were sleeping on the divider of a road when they met with the accident, they said.
The container truck going to Lucknow from Gorakhpur crushed them, killing seven persons on the spot.
The 12 injured were rushed to the Faizabad district hospital from where, three critically injured were referred to Lucknow Trauma center.
Faizabad Senior Superintendent of Police Mohit Gupta has suspended four policemen including the incharge of the Raiganj police station under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred.
Six of the deceased, identified as Gudiya Pandey, Kishori Tiwari, Laala Tiwari, Uma Shankar Dubey, Bhagwan Tiwari and Kishori Mishra, belonged to Kanpur while the identity of a woman was not immediately known.
The injured persons alleged that policeman on picket duty allowed the errant driver to escape after taking bribe.
