Bhopal, Aug 16 : At least four people were killed and nearly a dozen others injured when a Traveller vehicle collided with a loaded truck in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district early Saturday morning, police said.

The tragic accident occurred early morning, around 6 a.m., under the jurisdiction of Surwaya police station of Shivpuri district on the National Highway 27.

The impact of the head-on collision was so severe that four people died on the spot.

The deceased have been identified as Hardik Dave (40), Ankit Thakur (22), Raja Thakur (28), and Rajpal Solanki (60), police said. Bodies have been sent for the post-mortem examination.

Those injured, many of them critically, are undergoing treatment at a government-run hospital in Shivpuri. The injured have been identified as Mohit Rawal, Ashish Vyas, Narendra Nayak, Chetan Kumar, Harshad Goswami, Mohlik, Rishikesh, and Arvind.

According to police, all the victims were residents of Mehsana and Surendra Nagar districts of Gujarat. They were members of a local musical group that had travelled to Kashi Vishwanath to perform.

When they were returning to Gujarat via Shivpuri, Traveler's driver reportedly lost control due to high speed and collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction in the wee hours of Saturday.

Upon receiving information, local area police reached the spot, and the injured persons were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Later, some senior police officials also inspected the spot, and an investigation was started. The exact reason for the accident is yet to be known; however, police said the preliminary investigation indicated that the driver may have dozed off, which led to the mishap.

One of the survivors, talking to local media, said that the mishap occurred when all were asleep around 5.30 a.m. "We all were returning from Kashi Vishwanath and heading towards our homes in Gujarat in a Traveller," a survivor who identified himself as Vipul, told media persons.

/IANS