Two jawans of the Indian Army were killed and six others, two of them critically, wounded after a private bus collided with the autorickshaw they were travelling in near Nagpur on Sunday evening, police said.

The auto driver also suffered grievous injuries in the accident that took place on the Kanhan river bridge near Kamptee town around 5 pm, they said. What led to the collision was not immediately clear, they said.

According to senior police officials from Nagpur, the seven injured persons are being treated at different hospitals.

Altogether, 15 jawans from Army's Guard Regimental Training Center (GRC) at Kamptee, about 20 km from Nagpur, had gone shopping to Kanhan in two autos.

On their return, a bus “belonging to Paval Travels” collided with one of the autos, crushing it, said an official.

The jawans in the other auto and locals pulled out the soldiers stuck in the accident-hit mangled autorickshaw, he said.

Of the eight jawans in the auto, Vighnesh and Dheeraj Rai succumbed to their injuries during treatment, he said.

The other injured jawans have been identified as Din Pradhan, Kumar P, Shekhar Jadhav, Arvind, Murugan, and Nagaratnam, said police.

The condition of Kumar P, admitted to a hospital at Kamptee, and Nagaratnam, being treated at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur, is critical, he said.

Auto driver Shankar Kharakban is also in a serious condition, said the official.

After the accident, angry locals vandalised the bus and blocked the Nagpur-Jabalpur Highway, the official said.

Police are trying to ascertain the reason behind the collision, he added.

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