NEW DELHI: At least 35 farm workers were killed and 15 injured when a truck plunged into a small river in India’s eastern Bihar state, the Press Trust of India reported on Sunday.

The accident occurred late Saturday when 50 labourers were returning home in the impoverished state’s Khagaria district, police superintendent Siddheshwar Prasad Shukla told the news agency.

The workers had gone to another village to sow paddy and were returning home in the truck with foodgrains they earned as wages. The driver lost control of the vehicle and the truck veered off into a river.

Most of the workers died after being crushed beneath the truck and foodgrain sacks as the vehicle overturned.

Ten of the 15 injured were in a critical condition.—AFP