Four persons, including three of a family, were killed and five injured when the car they were travelling in collided with a trailer truck on Bankura-Purulia road in Bankura’s Chhatna around 10pm on Sunday.

Police said all those killed and injured were residents of Belia village on the outskirts of Bankura town. They were returning from Purulia’s Ayodhya Hills, where they had gone for a picnic on Sunday morning.

The police said severe fog had covered the area on Sunday night and they suspected the vehicles were coming from opposite directions and collided because of low visibility.

“There was a dense fog cover on the stretch and drivers of both the vehicles must have missed seeing each other because of poor visibility, which led to the crash,” said a police officer in Chhatna.

All the injured were rushed to Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared the four brought-dead. The injured persons had initially been taken to the Bankura hospital nut were later transferred to a private hospital in Durgapur.

The deceased were identified as Santosh Kumar Mukherjee, 70, his wife Belarani Mukherjee, 64, and their daughter Uma Mukherjee, 42. The driver of the Maruti Omni Sumanta Baske, 22, was also killed.

Sources said the Omni fell into a roadside ditch at Bhagwanpur village in Chhatna police station limit after the collision.

Local people called the police and joined hands in rescuing the injured. The truck driver, however, managed to escape. The police have seized both the vehicles.

Residents of Belia said the two families had hired the Omni to go on a picnic to Ayodhya Hills on Sunday.

“We never thought that such a tragedy would strike them at the end of the trip. They were returning home when the accident took place,” said an elderly villager.

The police said the bodies were handed over to the kin of those killed after post-mortem.