Oil tanker and auto-rickshaw collide head-on in Sylhet, four dead

Four people were killed and three others injured in a head-on collision between a Padma Petroleum oil tanker and an auto-rickshaw in Osmaninagar, Sylhet, on Saturday afternoon.

The accident occurred in the Brahmangram area of the upazila on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway. 

According to local sources, a Dhaka-bound Padma Petroleum oil tanker struck an oncoming auto-rickshaw carrying passengers, causing the vehicle to overturn. Seven women and children, including three members of the same family, were seriously injured. They were taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, where four of them, including a child, later died. 

The identities of the victims could not be confirmed at the time of writing of this report.

Officer-in-Charge of Sherpur Highway Police Station Anisur Rahman confirmed the incident. 

He later identified one of the deceased as Lalon Ahmed, 24. Efforts to identify the remaining victims were continuing. Both the oil tanker and the auto-rickshaw have been taken into police custody.

The crash follows an earlier fatal collision on August 7 in the Khashikapan area of the Sylhet-Dhaka highway, in which nine people died when a Unique Transport passenger bus collided with a Bengal Transport vehicle.