Three persons were killed when an empty oil tanker collided head-on with a medicine-laden mini truck on NH2 in Asansol early on Sunday. Both vehicles reportedly caught fire with the collision and were gutted before three fire engines could douse the blaze in an hour.

The incident occurred around 5am near Kalla crossing, at Asansol North police station limits when the driver of the mini truck lost control while trying to evade two cyclists, both brothers and fish vendors, and entered into another lane to collide with the empty oil tanker, sources said. The two cyclists, Santosh Gorai, 40, and Rakhohari Gorai, 35, residents of Barabani, died sandwiched between the two vehicles, which caught fire on impact.

The charred body of the truck driver was found in the vehicle’s cabin. He could not be identified till Sunday evening. The driver of the oil tanker escaped.

“The cyclists were crossing the road when the truck driver, on the Delhi-bound lane, entered the Calcutta-bound lane, and in trying to avoid the two cyclists collided head-on with the oil tanker. Both vehicles burst into flames,” said an eyewitness.

“The driver of the oil tanker managed to jump out of the cabin seconds before the collision,” said a source.

Police said the truck carrying the medicine consignment was bound for Dhanbad in Jharkhand, and the oil tanker was headed for Rajbandh in West Burdwan’s Kanksa.

Fire officials said despite the oil tanker being empty, the fire was ignited from the sheer impact of the collision between the two large vehicles.

“Initially, we brought two fire-fighting engines from the Asansol fire station but later another engine was pressed into service from our station at Raniganj. We doused the blaze but the vehicles were gutted. We found one charred body in the truck’s cabin,” said a fire official.

Traffic came to a halt for about an hour on the busy Calcutta-Delhi highway following the incident till police were able to clear the remnants of the mishap.

Sources said police rushed the two cyclists to Asansol district hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival. The charred body of the truck driver was sent to a morgue.

Police said they were trying to identify the owners of both two vehicles as of Sunday afternoon but the registration plates and documents were too burnt to be of any use.

“We will be able to identify the deceased truck driver and track the missing oil tanker driver only after tracing the owners of both vehicles. We are trying our best,” said a police officer.