The driver and cleaner of a tempo were killed after a container truck collided with their vehicle in Maharashtra's Thane district on Sunday morning, a civic official said. The accident took place around 5.40 am near Kharigaon on Mumbai-Nashik highway, Thane Municipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

The container truck coming from the opposite direction collided with the tempo, which was transporting chickens from Nashik to Mumbai. The tempo driver's cabin was completely damaged due to the impact of the collision and firemen had to use cutters to clear the wreckage and pull out the bodies, the official said.

The deceased were identified as tempo driver Salman Khan (34) and cleaner Phiroj Khan (32), he said. The bodies were sent to a government hospital for postmortem, he added.