A convoy of vehicles led by Union Minister of State for Defence, Pallam Raju, collided with an auto-rickshaw killing five persons instantaneously. The accident took place on Pannangi beach road near Perumallapalem village of Tondangi mandal in East Godavari district on Thursday. The Minister was coming from Visakhapatnam to take part in a programme here.
Seven persons including three police personnel were injured in the accident. The injured were shifted to Kakinada Government Hospital. Four of the five deceased are women. Traffic was disrupted for a couple of hours. The police removed the mangled parts of the auto-rickshaw and that of the car from the road to help the free flow of the traffic.
With the arrival of the police, Minister Pallam Raju took the initiative of rescue operations and ordered the shifting of the injured to a hospital here.