Toronto: Five Indian students were killed and two others injured in a fatal accident near Toronto in Canada on Saturday.
The students were killed in a fatal collision between a van and a tractor-trailer on Highway 401 in Quinte West. An official statement by local police identified the victims as Harpreet Singh, Jaspinder Singh, Karanpal Singh, Mohit Chouhan and Pawan Kumar. Police said that the victims were pronounced dead at the scene of Saturday’s crash.
The victims range in age from 21 to 24 years old and provincial police say they were all students in the Greater Toronto and Montreal areas. They were travelling west in a passenger van on Highway 401 Saturday morning when they collided with a tractor-trailer at around 3:45 a.m, the report added.
Police say two other passengers were taken to hospital with serious injuries following the crash but did not update their conditions.
The driver of the tractor-trailer escaped unhurt.
Indian High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria confirmed the news Monday and expressed his condolences to the families of the students. He also said that the Indian embassy in Canada is providing all necessary help to relatives and friends of the deceased.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing, and no charges have been laid.
(Photo: In this image taken from CTV News, Ottawa, Police investigate at the site of the accident.)