Panaji: At least two people were killed and 13 others, including five children, were injured after a light-duty truck swerved off a bridge and crashed into a valley 25 metres below along the national highway at Padi in south Goa on Saturday night, police said.

The victims, eight of whom are said to be seriously injured, were travelling in a truck laden with sacks of cashew nuts and were trapped under the cargo following the accident, said police.

The injured, all labourers, were shifted to the Hospicio District Hospital at Margao in south Goa, said police, adding while one person succumbed on the spot, another succumbed to his injuries the next morning at the hospital.

Goa’s minister for social welfare Subhash Phaldesai, who, along with chief minister Pramod Sawant, was returning from a party function at Canacona in south Goa, halted their convoy to aid the rescue operations.

“We were able to rescue 13 individuals, including five children…My personal security staff along with the chief minister’s security staff, who were the first to reach the site, helped lift the victims from under the rubble,” Phaldesai told media persons.