Kanpur, March 22 (IANS): Three students were crushed to death by a UPSRTC bus on the Kanpur-Sagar highway in the Patara area of Ghatampur on Friday morning.

The deceased were in the age group of 22 to 24.

Several passengers in the bus were also injured when the vehicle fell into a roadside ditch after hitting the students.

According to preliminary reports, all the three Polytechnic students riding bicycles, were on their way to the station to take a train to reach their institute in Hamirpur when the bus hit them.

Police arrived on getting information about the accident and rushed the injured students to Community Health Centre where doctors declared all three students dead.

Angry over the incident, the villagers created a ruckus.

ACP Ghatampur Ranjit Kumar said, "The UPSRTC bus was heading towards Ghatampur from Kanpur when the accident occurred. The students have been identified as Ankush Prajapati, Deepak Tiwari and Manish Kumar. They all were students of Polytechnic located in Hamirpur. Every day they would park their bicycles at the station and take a train to reach their college."

The police have pulled out the bus from the ditch with the help of a crane.

The family members of the deceased have been informed about the tragedy.

The police have sent bodies for post mortem.