8 killed as speeding vehicle crashes into wall in India's Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people, including a groom, were killed and two others injured critically after a vehicle carrying a wedding party crashed into the boundary wall of a college in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said Saturday.

The accident took place Friday evening in Junawai town of Sambhal district, about 383 km northwest of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.

"The vehicle was reportedly being driven at high speed when the driver lost control near Janata Inter College and collided with the boundary wall, following which the vehicle overturned," according to the police.

Police have registered a case and ordered an investigation into the accident.

India's Federal Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, in December last year revealed in the parliament that road accidents claim approximately 178,000 lives each year in India, and around 60 percent of those fatalities occur among individuals aged 18 to 34 years.

Last year, over 480,000 road accidents were recorded in the country.