Eight women were killed and two others injured, including a 9-year-old girl, when a passenger van, in which they were travelling on a pilgrimage, flipped and ploughed into a roadside ditch in Thailand’s north-eastern province of Khon Kaen last night.

Emergency services, who attended the scene of the accident on a bypass in the Muang district, said that six people were found dead at the scene. Four were injured and were rushed to a hospital in the district, where two were later pronounced dead.

The driver of the van and a 9-year-old girl survived the accident with injuries.

Police in Khon Kaen said the van left Nakhon Phanom province, carrying nine passengers, all of them female, on a pilgrimage to Chaiyaphum province, where they planned to make merit at nine temples.

Police said they think the driver might have fallen asleep at the wheel, resulting in a loss of control of the van, which flipped over and ploughed into the roadside ditch.