Two people were killed when a speeding vehicle struck a store late on Tuesday night in Itamati, Nayagarh district. One of the dead was a pedestrian, and the other was a car owner.

A Mahindra SUV was speeding down this stretch late at night when it seemed to lose control and collide with an electronics store, according to sources who cited eyewitness accounts. The impact was so strong that the car was reduced to a mangled wreck and one of the shop's concrete pillars was totally destroyed.

A truck driver, who had just parked his vehicle nearby, was walking down the road in front of the shop when the car hit it, killing him on the spot.

Further reports mentioned that the car had two persons inside. While one of them was the deceased car owner, the other was reported to be the vehicle’s driver, who managed to escape the wreck and flee the scene.

Itamati police reached the spot and launched an investigation into the accident. As per preliminary accounts, the owner hailed from Sagarugan in the Khordha district and the entire case is reportedly being viewed as an incident of drunk driving.

Till the last reports came in, police were trying to contact the car owner’s family as well as probing to ascertain the identity of the dead pedestrian. Authorities, however, offered no further comments on the matter.