11 Dead, Including 3 Children, in UP Highway Crash

Eleven people, including three children, died in a multi-vehicle collision on a national highway in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district, triggered by a suspected brake failure in a truck, police reported Thursday.

The accident occurred around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on a downhill stretch of National Highway 135 descending from the Dramandganj valley toward the Lasoda area, about 50 kilometers from Mirzapur's district headquarters. According to preliminary investigations, a truck traveling from behind lost control due to brake failure and rammed into another truck ahead. An Alto car between the two trucks was crushed in the impact, and a subsequent chain reaction caused a Bolero SUV to collide and catch fire, Superintendent of Police Aparna Rajat Kaushik said.

Police and fire brigade teams arrived promptly at the scene near Barkha Ghuman Baisod Balay Hill, under the Drumandganj police station jurisdiction. With assistance from local residents, they conducted rescue operations, extracting victims from the mangled vehicles. Traffic on the affected route was disrupted but has since been restored using alternate paths, officials said. No law and order issues were reported at the site,...