Five persons, including four women, were killed and 26 others injured when the bus in which they were travelling collided with a lorry at Perumpallam in Salem district.

The deceased are yet to be identified, as all the injured, some of them serious, are being treated at the Government Hospital in Mettur, some 54 km from Salem, police said.

The bus was going from Erode to Mettur, while the lorry to Bhavani from Mettur, when the mishap occurred. The number of casualty is likely to increase in view of the severe injuries to some of the passengers, police said.