24 migrants killed after two trucks collide in India

Twenty-four migrants were killed and many were injured when the  trucks they were travelling in collided at around 3 am in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district, about 200 km from the state capital Lucknow.

This is the latest incident where stranded migrant workers - left jobless due to the coronavirus lockdown - have been killed in an accident while trying to return home.

Desperate to return home, separate groups of migrants hitched a ride on trucks from Rajasthan and Delhi; they were headed to villages in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, according to the officials.

One of the trucks was transporting wheat packets. The truck that was coming from Rajasthan also picked some migrants from Haryana.

"Some people had got down from one of the trucks that stopped at a dhaba to have tea. That was when the collision happened.  We are still trying figure out why so many people were packed in those vehicles coming from Delhi and Rajasthan. Those injured have been admitted to hospitals," senior police officer Jai Narayan Singh said.

Distressing visuals of chaos from the accident site show injured labourers getting help from locals and policemen after the accident. A large number of policemen can be seen carrying out rescue operations; some of them can be seen pulling out the food packets.

Dhaka/Mukul