A collision on the Purvanchal Expressway near Sultanpur on Wednesday morning resulted in the deaths of three tennis players and injuries to another three. Police said a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga carrying six players was driven into the rear of a truck around 5.30 a.m. near Sukhbaderi in the Dhanpatganj Police Station area.
The vehicle was reportedly traveling at about 100 km/h and was found mangled after the impact, trapping the occupants inside. Local residents helped police break open the doors and extricate the passengers.
All six were transported to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared three dead and three injured. The deceased were identified as Nitya Prajapati, 22, and Irfan Ansari, 20, both from Deoria, and Aniket, 24, from Bhagalpur. The injured were Anand Yadav, 23; Raju, 22; and Jayanto Sharma, 30, a resident of Birbhum in West Bengal, who was taken to Ayodhya Medical College for further treatment.
The players were returning to Deoria after a sporting event in Lucknow. According to Sharma, most occupants were asleep before the collision. The truck driver fled the scene, and police are searching for him.
