Five persons riding two motorcycles were killed in a road mishap in Masauli police station area of Barabanki district on Saturday afternoon when a speeding loader coming from the wrong direction hit their two-wheelers on the Barabanki-Bahraich highway.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the death of the victims and granted ex gratia to their families.

The deceased were identified as Deepak Kumar Gautam, (18), Abhishek (24) and their uncle Shubhkaran Kumar (30), all of Kinhauli village in  Masauli and riding one of the motorcycles, and Prashant Dwivedi (23) and Pankaj Mishra (22) of Lakhpedabagh of Barabanki, both on the other motorcycle. Pankaj was a native of Gonda district and was staying in Lakhperabagh locality of Barabanki.

As per reports, the loader driver took the wrong side to overtake a Roadways bus and in the process hit the motorcycles coming from the opposite direction around 2:30 pm on Saturday.

The victims were going towards Ram Nagar locality of Barabanki while the loader was coming from Ram Nagar side.

Eyewitnesses told the police that the impact of the collision was so powerful that the victims riding the motorcycles were tossed up high in the air before they fell in the thicket at the roadside.

Four of the victims were killed on the spot while the fifth died at the district hospital in Barabanki.

“The loader driver did not stop even after seeing the motorcycles coming from the opposite direction and hearing people’s cries to avert the mishap. The driver escaped after the accident, abandoning the loader a few metres away from the accident spot,” the eyewitnesses said.

Police later arrested the loader driver.

Shubhkaran and his nephews were going to unload fertilisers from a truck in Bindaura locality while Prashant and Pankaj were going to offer puja at Lodheshwar Baba temple when they met with the mishap.