Hyderabad, January 14:Five Ayyappa devotees from Andhra Pradesh were killed on the spot and four others sustained injuries when the SUV in which they were travelling collided with a stationary lorry on the Madurai Road in Tamil Nadu early on Thursday.
The victims have been identified as Narender, Balaraju, Murali, Srinivas and Sai, hailing from Begumpet in Kandukur mandal in Ranga Reddy district.
According to Tamil Nadu police, the bodies have been shifted to Government Hospital in Madurai for postmortem. The condition of injured is stated to be serious.
The mishap took place when the Ayyappa devotees were on their way to Andhra Pradesh in the ill-fated SUV from Sabarimalai in Kerala after a darshan of Lord Ayyappa.
The SUV rammed into a stationary lorry from behind, according to information reaching here.
With Thursday’s mishap, the number of Ayyappa devotees who have been killed in road accidents this year has risen to 17.
Nine Ayyappa devotees, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed on January 2 when their MUV rammed a stationary lorry at Salem in Tamil Nadu. These nine victims belonged to Chittoor.
In another mishap which had taken place on January 10, three Ayyappa devotees were killed on the spot when the tourist bus in which they were travelling hit a car and veered off the road to plunge in a gorge. This incident took place at Idigundi in Yellapur in Karnataka. The victims were from Marredpally in Secunderabad.
A large number of devotees, clad in black make their way to the Sabarimalai temple in Kerala where the Hindu God Ayyappa Swami is worship. Hindus believe that Ayyappa Swami is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvathi.
The temple is open for the public till January 15, when the ‘Makaravillukku’ appears above the Western Ghats. (INN)