30 dead in Indian road crash

GUWAHATI: A heavy goods truck careered onto the wrong side of the road and smashed head-on into two packed vehicles in the northeast of India on Thursday, killing at least 30 and injuring 10, officials told AFP.

A police spokesperson said the accident took place on a highway early Thursday near the village of Doholapara in the Barpeta district of Assam, about 140 kilometres west of the main city of Guwahati.

The driver of the truck was arrested by police shortly after the accident.

"The two pick-up vans were carrying more people than the permissible limits. A probe has been ordered," district magistrate Siddhartha Singha told AFP, saying 28 died on the spot and another two had succumbed to their injuries.

Some 110,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2011 - more than 300 every day - according to the latest available statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau.