Seven of family buried alive

Seven members of a family died after being buried alive under a heap of crushed stones in Punjab's Patiala district during the wee hours on Friday, police said.

The incident took place when the truck in which the family members were travelling overturned in the Banur town of Patiala, 25 km from state capital Chandigarh. The truck, that was coming from Himachal Pradesh to Patiala town, was overloaded with crushed stones.

"All the family members belonged to Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. There were sitting over the heap of bajri (stones) in the truck. While taking a sharp turn the driver lost balance and the truck overturned," Ajit Singh, station house officer of Banur, said.

"On getting the information, we immediately reached the spot but it took over four hours to locate the bodies in the heap. The driver and helper of the truck escaped with minor injuries," he added.

Singh said two men, one woman and four kids, between the age group of one to three years, died in the accident.