Three members of a family were killed at Pungar village under Pottangi block on National Highway-26 in Koraput district when the car by which they were travelling collided with a tanker in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The husband, wife and their little daughter died at the spot. The identities of the deceased were yet to be ascertained.
The family was on its way from Baipariguda to Visakhapatnam in the car when the tanker coming from the opposite direction towards Visakhapatnam from Damanjodi collided head on at Pungar.
Locals rushed to the spot and tried to rescue the victims. However, they failed as the car was badly damaged in the accident.
Getting information, police reached the spot and retrieved the bodies from the mangled car and sent them to the nearby hospital for postmortem.
Villagers detained the tanker and its driver. Communication along the National Highway was disrupted following the accident.