Seven people were killed and 25 injured early Sunday when the bus they were on fell into a ditch after a collision on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in the Usrahar area here, police said.

Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar told reporters that a bus with Nagaland number plate was on its way to Delhi from Rae Bareli, when at around 12.45 am it collided with a car coming from the wrong lane.

The collision sent the bus careening into about a 20-foot roadside ditch and flip over.

Police have identified at least three dead.

Om Prakash Tiwari, 50, a native of Lakhimpur, was one of the victims from the bus.

Monu, 25, his mother Chanda Devi, and Pradyumn, 24, who all were in the car, died on the spot. Three others are yet to be identified.

According to the SP, the driver of the car, who had been coming from Lucknow and going to Agra, must have fallen asleep and entered the wrong lane.

The injured, one of them critical, have been admitted to a hospital, police said. The SP said there were about 60 people on the bus.

The family in the car was returning to Talgram in Kannauj after paying a visit to Mehndipur Balaji in Rajasthan.

Ranjana, a bus passenger, said the driver was using his mobile phone on the wheel and kept doing that even when he was also asked not to.

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