Twelve farm labourers were killed and 28 injured when a tractor trailer carrying them was hit by a jute-laden lorry at Malati Nagar in this West Bengal district on Wednesday.
The labourers, numbering 40, were coming from Sahajpur village of Kalna sub-division to submit a memorandum to local block development officer when the lorry hit it from the rear after its driver lost control.
SP Rajaram Rajasekharan said all the casualties occurred on board the tractor trailer, which overturned as well as the lorry.
"Four persons died on the spot when they were crushed under the overturned tractor trailer. Eight others died in the hospital," he said.
Local people rescued the injured labourers and rushed them to hospital.
The injured were admitted to the Kalna Sub-Divisional Hospital where the condition of many was stated to be critical, police said.