Malappuram (Kerala) | A private bus running on the Kozhikode-Thrissur route met with an accident on Sunday morning, killing one person and injuring 26 others, as it overturned on the highway near Kuttipuram here, police said.

Visuals of the accident site showed the bus lying on its back, nearly bent in the middle, atop a concrete barrier on the roadside with its undercarriage ripped away.

The visuals on TV channels also showed that one side of the bus was lying on top of a car on the other side of the barrier.

The police also said that the area was an accident prone region.

The exact cause of the accident is yet to be determined, it said.

A senior police officer said that the bus is suspected to have been speeding, and since it was also raining, both of which could have resulted in the accident.

One of the passengers told a TV channel that after the accident everyone panicked as diesel was falling on them as the bus lay upside down and people were facing difficulty getting out of it.

Police said that the local people helped in the rescue work.

It also said that the person who died was a Kozhikode native.

The officer said that the bus hit the divider and then cut across it to the other side of the road and overturned atop the barrier.