5 die as lorry runs over crowd

Tirupati: Five villagers died and five others sustained injuries as a lorry crashed into a crowds participating in jathara at Tana Vaddipalli of Pileru mandal in Chittoor district in the early hours on Thursday.

According to Piler Urban Police, the cement-laden lorry was travelling at high speed towards Chennai from Kadapa via Piler when the mishap occurred. At the time, the villagers, most of them folk artistes, were participating in Gangamma Jathara procession near Tana Vaddipalli. As the lorry ran over them, five persons in the crowd died and five others were injured. The other villagers ran to all directions in panic.

The deceased were identifies as R Narayana(50) , R Jayaram (45), C Gurrappa (65), R Venkata Ramana (50) of Nimmanapalli mandal in the district. Four died on the spot while B Lakshmaiah succumbed to his injuries at Tirupati Rui Hospital. It is learnt that all the were performing folk dance when the tragedy struck.

They were taking part in the Jathara on the request of Vaddipalli villagers. Piler CI Venugopal and his staff rushed to the spot and started rescue measures. The bodies were sent to Piler Area Hospital for post-mortem. Police shifted the five injured to the hospital. The accused lorry driver fled from the spot. A case has been registered by the Piler Urban Police.

Madanapalli DSP Chidananda Reddy inspected the spot. Later, former MLC Naresh Kumar Reddy and other leaders expressed their condolence over the death of poor villagers.