Jalna:

Seven persons returning from a pilgrimage to temple town Pandharpur were killed and three injured on Thursday after a taxi veered off the road in Maharashtra’s Jalna district and fell into a well, a police official said.

The incident took place at 5:30pm in Vasant Nagar in the district’s Badnapur tehsil, the official said.

“The occupants of the taxi were returning from Pandharpur. The killed people have been identified as Narayan Nihal (45), Prahlad Bitle (65), Prahlad Mahajan (65), Nanda Tayde (35), Chandrabhga Ghuge, who are residents of Chanegaon in Badnapur tehsil, as well as Tarabai Malusare from Bhokardan and Ranjana Kamble (35). Three injured persons have been admitted in the district hospital here,” he said.

The taxi had 12 occupants, including the driver, and it veered off the road while trying to avoid a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction, the official said.

“The black-and-yellow taxi fell into a well, trapping some of the occupants as the front doors got jammed. Some of them managed to escape as the taxi began to sink. The road on that stretch does not have guard rails. A crane had to be deployed to extricate the bodies from the car,” the official said.

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