Kasaragod: An ambulance carrying a nine-year-old patient and her relatives from Kannur to Mangaluru collided with a car and overturned at Uppala near Manjeshwar on Tuesday, killing the girl's mother.

The deceased has been identified as Shahina (48) of Varam in Kannur city. "She died before reaching here," said a nurse in the emergency ward of Yenepoya Medical College in Deralakatte on the outskirts of Mangaluru.

She identified the injured as Shahina's daughter Riya Fathima, who was being taken to Mangaluru with a stomach ache; Shahina’s sister Shajina (45); their nephew Aseev (22); and ambulance driver Akram, a native of Pallipuram near Kakkad.

Fathima broke her thigh bone in the accident, said Akram.

Anas (22), another nephew who was also in the ambulance, escaped with minor injuries as he was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, said the nurse.

Akram said that he hit the brakes suddenly when water from the waterlogged highway splashed onto the ambulance’s windscreen, blocking his view. Just then, a car rear-ended the vehicle, causing it to topple. The crash triggered a pile-up involving six cars.

The ambulance belongs to the Kakkad Santhwanam Charitable Trust, operated by the Sunni Yuvajana Sangham, the youth wing of the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama.