Gulbarga, Jun 2 (IANS): At least 15 people, including three children, were killed and a dozen injured when a van and a bus collided head-on and fell in a ditch in Karnataka, police said.

The accident took place in Aland, 40 km from here and 700 km from Bangalore.

The collision occurred around 5 a.m. on a highway when a pick-up van and a state-run route bus collided head-on at high speed and fell in a roadside ditch, Gulbarga superintendent of police Amit Singh told IANS.

Most of the victims were from the van, which was going to Gulbarga from Akkalgud in Sholapur district of Maharashtra across the border.

Of the injured, five were admitted to the district hospital at Gulbarga and seven in a state-run general hospital at Aland.

"The victims, including the injured, from joint families were on way to visit the Sufi shrine (dargah) of Khwaja Bande Nawaz on the city's outskirts," Singh said.

Among the injured were the driver and six passengers of the bus, which was coming from Koppal to Aland in the northern region of the state.

"We have registered a complaint against the bus and van drivers and set up a team to investigate the incident," Singh said.