Pathanamthitta: At least four people were critically injured after a tourist bus collided with a cement mixer truck at Kuttur in Thiruvalla early on Sunday. The accident occurred on the MC Road around 1.30 am when the tourist bus, heading towards Changanassery, crashed into the truck coming from the opposite direction.

The driver of the truck, Karuppu Swami, a native of Tamil Nadu, was trapped inside the vehicle. Fire and rescue officials rushed to the spot and rescued him. "We received the alert around 1.42 am. By the time we reached the spot, the bus passengers had already been shifted to the hospital, but the truck driver was trapped inside the vehicle. We used a hydraulic cutter and spreader to extricate him," a fire and rescue personnel told Onmanorama.

“Based on the condition of the vehicles and the crash site, the tourist bus appeared to be travelling at high speed and collided head-on with the truck,” a fire and rescue official said. The injured driver was later shifted to the hospital.