Nine people were killed and seven injured in the Lilapur area here on Monday afternoon when a gas tanker overturned on the tempo they were travelling in, police said.

The accident took place on the Lucknow-Varanasi highway here, about 15 km away from the district headquarters, Additional Superintendent of Police (West) Rohit Mishra said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed condolence on the loss of lives in the accident and announced a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those who died and Rs 50,000 each to the seriously injured.

Of the nine dead, seven have been identified and efforts are on to identify the remaining two, SP Satpal Antil said.

The tanker overturned due to high speed on the busy highway, the SP said, adding that hearing the shrieks, the locals and other passers by were the first ones to rush to their rescue.

They struggled hard to bring the trapped victims out.

The accident led to commotion around the area for some time and a police team reached the spot soon and rushed the victims to the Pratapgarh Medical College hospital where four women and five men were declared brought dead, Mishra said.

Owing to their critical condition, the other seven injured were referred to Prayagraj SRN Hospital, the ASP added.

The deceased have been identified as Satish (25), his father Radheshyam (47), Harikesh Srivastava (63), Sheetla Prasad (53), Neeraj Pandey (21), Mohd Rais (45) and his wife Gulshan Bano (42), police said, adding that all are locals and their bodies have been sent for autopsy.

The ASP said a probe is underway.The driver of the tanker and others had fled the spot by the time police reached there.

According to a release issued in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has expressed deep condolences over the loss of lives in the road accident in Pratapgarh.

He has extended condolences to the bereaved family members and instructed the district administration to provide proper treatment to the people injured in the accident.

The chief minister has given instructions to provide financial assistance of Rs. 2 lakh each to the families of those who died in this accident and Rs. 50,000 each to the seriously injured, the release added.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.