A child and three women were among nine killed when a car collided head-on with a truck on the Mumbai-Goa highway on early Thursday morning.

According to police, the accident took place near Mangaon on the highway around 5 am today.

While the truck was travelling to Mumbai, the car was on its way to Guhagar in Ratnagiri district. The heavily mangled remains of the car point to the intensity of the crash, a NDTV report stated.

The dead include five men and three women. A child injured in the accident has been rushed to the hospital, police said. 

Traffic movement on the highway has resumed and the incident is being investigated, they added.