Four students on their way to take part in New Year celebrations were killed and three others injured when a car in which they were travelling hit the road divider and rammed into a truck in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district on Monday, police said.

The incident occurred on the Guntur-Chilkaluripeta highway when they were on their way to Vijayawada. The victims were reported to be second year engineering students at R V R and J C Engineering College. According to the police, the car which was being driven at very high speed hit the divider and then hit the truck from the rear.

Such was the impact of the collision that the truck also overturned. The truck driver and cleaner were injured. The car was badly mangled. The deceased and injured students were all aged under 20 years. Locals rushed all the five occupants of the car to a nearby hospital, but they were all declared brought dead by the doctors. The injured were shifted to the government hospital in Guntur.

A case has been registered by the police and the bodies of the students were sent for an post mortem before being handed over to their family members for conducting last rites.

With plenty of options for those looking to party on December 31, the Vijayawada police had issued an advisory for party goers as well as event organisers so that things go smoothly and safely on the celebratory night.

Vijayawada CP Dwaraka Tirumala Rao had said in a statement that all precautionary measures were taken to prevent untoward incidents during celebrations. Police said that there will be checkpoints and road blocks in certain areas of the city like BRTS road, MG Road, Eluru Road, Prakasam Barrage Inner Ring Road which will have road blocks every 250 metres.

Police also said that the CVR road, Outer Ring Road and PCR Fly over routes would be closed in night. 

IANS inputs