At least 20 passengers were injured when a mishap occurred involving three buses on NH-5 near Tangi on Monday, the police said.
A passenger bus travelling towards Cuttack from Chandikhol hit a educational institution bus near Tangi petrol pump and it swerved and hit another another passenger bus parked inside the petrol pump premises.
While the educational institution bus, which did not have any students, was badly damaged, the two passenger buses fell into a 15 feet roadside gorge injuring the occupants in them, the sources said.
The five seriously injured passengers were taken to SCB Medical College and Hospital here while the other injured were discharged after first aid at a local facility.
Local people and petrol pump staff rescued injured passengers from the buses and made arrangements with the police to shift them to hospitals.