Seven persons, including two women and a six-year old boy, were killed and 28 others injured, when a private bus they were travelling turned turtle near Avanashi in neighbouring Tirupur district, today.

The driver of the bus, lost control of the vehicle, when he applied brakes to avoid running into a mentally challenged alms seeker walking in the middle of the road around 7.30 a.m., police said.

However, due to the impact of the sudden jerk, the bus swerved and turned turtle,resulting in the death of seven persons, including the alms seeker, at Pazhankarai on National Highway 47, police said. The bus was entering the city from Erode, when the mishap occurred.

The deceased have been identified as Karthik (18), Yamuna (41), Parthasarathy (32) and Darsh Agarwal (6), while the identity of three others is yet to be ascertained. The injured have been admitted to various hospitals in Tirupur and Avanashi.

Tirupur District Collector Govindarajan and Superintendent of Police Amith KumarSingh visited the area, to oversee the rescue operations. Preliminary investigation revealed that the bus was travelling at high speed and was overloaded. The police are interrogating the driver Saravanan.