KHUZDAR: Seven members of a family, including women and children, were killed and four others injured when a passenger van collided with a truck on the Quetta-Karachi highway near Winder area of Lasbela district on Tuesday.

Officials said that the victims, who belonged to Karachi, weregoingfor a picnic in a coastal area of Lasbela district.

According to sources, the van collided with the truck that had been parked by the roadside after ithad developed afault.

Police, however, claimed that the cause of the incident was overspeeding, saying the van driver had lost control over the steering wheel.

Six persons died on the spot and another one in a hospital duringtreatment, Deputy Commissioner of Lasbela Shabbir Mengal told Dawn. Soon after receiving information about the incident, personnel of the police and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the area. They shifted the bodies and the injured to the district hospital in Bela.

Six of the deceased were identified as M. Azeem, Farzana, Shahzain, M. Ramzan, his wife Fatima Bibi and daughter Zahra Bibi.