As many as nine people including five students were killed in a major road mishap in Kerala’s Palakkad on Wednesday.

Kerala road transport minister Antony Raju informed today that a private tourist bus hit a state-run KSRTC bus from behind at Vadakkenchery.

Raju said that the incident took place at around 11.30 pm last night when the speeding private bus, in an attempt to overtake a car, hit the state-run bus from behind.

Speaking to local media he said, “Both the buses went off the road as a result. Nine persons, including five students and a teacher, were killed in the accident.”

He also informed that the preliminary view was that the accident took place due to high speed of the private bus and negligence on the part of its driver.

The KSRTC bus was headed towards Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu from Kottarakkara in Kerala and was carrying 81 passengers. Three among them were also killed in the accident, added Raju.

Meanwhile, the private bus was carrying 42 students and five teachers of Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School in Ernakulam, who were on a pleasure trip.

State local self government minister M B Rajesh who visited the hospital in Palakkad where those injured in the accident were taken, said that four among them were in critical, while the remaining were fine.

The state revenue minister K Rajan told the media that everyone was in shock regarding the incident and assured on an investigation to ascertain the reason behind the accident.

He said that strict measures will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future. A cabinet meeting will be held to consider providing compensatory assistance to the families of the deceased, while the students who lost close friends and a teacher in the incident, will need counseling.

Breaking into tears, one of the students told a TV channel that the private bus was going at a very high speed and then rammed into the rear right side of the KSRTC bus and toppled over.

He said, "There was blood everywhere. We do not know what has happened to some of our friends and teachers who were in bad shape."

Another student said that she was watching a film when the accident occurred and someone landed on top of her as the bus toppled over.

"Someone pulled me and another girl out from the bus. But the girl sitting close to me could not be pulled out until much later," she said.

Police said that around 40 persons were injured in the accident.