At least eight persons, seven of them suspected to be from Nepal, were killed when a car collided with a tanker at Purandar along the Sunauli-Gorakhpur road section in India on Friday.

The car diver, a woman, two children and four men were killed in the crash.

As of late Friday evening, only three victims were identified: car driver Rahim Khan from a bordering area in India, and two Nepali passengers, Jukhai Tharu and Umesh Chaudhary, both of them from Tilottama Municipality in Rupandehi district.

Police said it was highly likely the remaining five victims were from Nepal.

According to an officer at Belahiya Traffic Police Office in the district, they were informed by the Indian police  about the fatal crash involving a car (UP 53 CT 7202) en route to Sunauli from Gorakhpur and a tanker (UP 52 T 4377) coming from the opposite direction, in which some Nepalis may have been killed.

The scene of the crash is around 40km away from the Nepal-India border in Sunauli Belahiya police has sent its officers to the incident site to help the Indian authorities establish the identities of the crash victims.

The Indian police are apparently having trouble ascertaining the identities of the victims in the absence of personal documents, said Police Inspector Rabin Bista.