Five pilgrims were killed and fifty people were injured when the bus they were travelling in collided with an oil tanker at Khara village in Jodhpur district on National Highway 15.
The incident took place yesterday around 10 PM when the bus carrying people on a pilgrimage tour from Gujarat collided with the tanker coming from the opposite direction and overturned, trapping people inside it.
The pilgrims were heading to Jaisalmer after attending a religious function in Phalodi.
Police have arrested the driver of the tanker who was allegedly in an inebriated state.
"When they reached near the bus stand of village Khara at about 10 PM, a speeding oil tanker coming from opposite direction hit the bus head on," a police official said.
"The injured were rushed to the local hospital from where some badly injured were later shifted to the MDM Hospital in Jodhpur," he said.
Two women pilgrims died on the spot and three others including two women died during transit to the hospital.
50 others sustained minor to serious injuries and were taken to the hospitals in Phalodi and Pokhran areas.
