At least 10 people were killed and 20 others injured after two Tamil Nadu government buses collided head-on near Kummangudi in Sivaganga district on Sunday evening, police said.
The accident occurred around five kilometres from Pillaiyarpatti, in the Tirupattur area.
A police officer at the scene told NDTV that "at least 10 were killed and 20 passengers suffered injuries", adding that rescue efforts by the public and fellow passengers helped pull several victims out of the mangled vehicles.
One of the buses was travelling from Tiruppur to Karaikudi, while the other was headed from Karaikudi towards Dindigul district.
Pictures from the accident site showed the driver's side of one of the buses completely ripped off.
Videos from the accident site showed bodies lying in a row on the ground. A woman was seen jumping out of the front of the bus, whose windshield was blown away. One woman was sitting on the ground with blood dripping from her forehead.
Emergency teams rushed the injured to nearby hospitals, and officials said more details on the cause of the crash and the condition of those hospitalised are awaited.
This is the second major head-on collision involving government and private buses in southern Tamil Nadu within a week.
Last week, six people were killed in Tenkasi district after two private buses rammed into each other; investigators had then flagged reckless driving by one of the buses as a possible cause.
