Five residents of Marar village in Muktsar district were killed when a truck and a tempo collided near Panjgrain Kalan on the Kotkapura-Moga road in Faridkot district on Friday, police said.

Eight people were hospitalised with injuries, while two escaped unhurt.

The accident took place around 2am when the villagers were returning from a religious shrine in Una district of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

The intensity of the collision was such that the tempo was ripped into two pieces. Fifteen people, including children, were travelling in the tempo.

Station house officer Gursewak Singh said the five people, including the driver of the tempo, died on the spot.

The driver of the truck was arrested and booked for culpable homicide.

The dead were identified as Lovepreet Singh, 26, Karamjit Kaur, 35, her namesake Karamjit Kaur, 40, Sukhdev Singh, 38, and Deepak Kumar, 28.

The injured were admitted to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot.