Thiruvananthapuram | A critically-ill patient died when an ambulance in which he was being shifted to a hospital rammed into a wayside house in Kanjirappally in Kottayam district in the wee hours of Saturday, police said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle and that led to the accident, they said.

The patient identified as P K Raju, hailing from Pallapra, who was being shifted to a hospital here, died there later.

The exact cause of the death can be ascertained after getting the postmortem report, Ponkunnam police said.

Though the compound wall of the house was damaged from the impact of the accident, the ambulance driver and another staffer escaped with minor injuries. The residents staying in the house had a miraculous escape, police said