Soon after the ghastly road mishap in Krishnagiri district which took toll of 18 lives, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa rushed two ministers to oversee relief operations.

A Krishnagiri-bound private bus carrying 33 passengers from Berigai was rammed by a groundnut-laden lorry from Karnataka. Around 30 people are said to have been injured.

As many as seven among the 25 injured people were given first aid in the Krishnagiri government hospital before they were shifted to other government hospitals in Salem, Dharmapuri and Bengaluru.

Condoling the mishap, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a solatium of Rs 1 lakh to each of the dead victims’ kin and Rs 50,000 assistance to the grievously injured from the Chief Minister Relief Fund. “I was deeply grieved by the death of 17 persons,” she said.

Jayalalithaa said with the district collector and superintendent of police already involved in the rescue operations following her orders, she has deputed health minister Dr Vijayabaskar and animal husbandry minister Balakrishna Reddy to the spot.

According to preliminary information, the lorry had breached the NH median and crashed into the passenger bus and a car. The bus was carrying 10 women and 22 men.