RIYADH: Five people from the southern Indian state of Kerala were killed in a road accident at Salwa near Dammam in the Eastern Province early Thursday morning.

Manoj Kumar, community welfare attache at the Indian Embassy, told Arab News that the victims were Santosh Kumar, Iqbal Noman, Tulsi Krishnan, Ravindra Nair and Shiva Kumar Bhagvati Pillai.

They were all employees of a private company in Dammam and were traveling from a work site when their vehicle was hit by a speeding trailer truck at Salwa.

“All of them died on the spot,” he said. Their bodies are currently at the Aramco hospital. “The embassy is in contact with the company and helping, with the aid of volunteers, to send them to their families back in India,” he said.

Two of the victims were from Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam district, while one man was a native of Alappuzha district.

Last week four members of a Riyadh-based Indian family, who were returning from Makkah after performing Umrah, died when their car collided with a truck, 150 km from the capital.