Seven men travelling to attend a friend's wedding died in a road accident in central Karnataka when the car they were in, crashed into the rear of a truck, police said on Thursday.

The mishap occurred around Wednesday midnight when the speeding multi-utility vehicle rammed into the rear side of a truck carrying timber near Muddinakoppa, in Shivamogga district, on the state highway, the district Additional Superintendent of Police M. Muthuraj told IANS.

The victims, aged between 25-45 years, were travelling from Bengaluru to Sagara town in Malnad region to attend their friend's wedding on Thursday.

The accident spot is about 100km from Shivamogga and 405km from Bengaluru.

The victims were identified as Madhu, car driver, Praveen, a make-up artist, Mallesh, Sridhar, Rajesekhar, Raghavendra and Manjunath.

Police had a tough time extricating the victims' bodies from the mangled vehicle, which got stuck to the truck's rear side on impact.

The accident also led to blocked vehicular traffic on the busy highway for over three hours, post-midnight.

"The unidentified truck driver escaped in the dark. A search is on to nab him. He seems to have suddenly applied the brake, resulting in the collision from behind," said Muthuraj.