A recklessly driven truck ran over two minor sisters and left an autorickshaw driver seriously injured on the Chandigarh-Mohali road in Phase XI on Friday.

The accident took place around 10 am when the speeding truck, coming from Chandigarh, rammed into an autorickshaw moving ahead of it, before hitting the pavement where the two girls were standing.

While Anita (7) and Sunita (10), daughters of a migrant labourer living in Amb Sahib Colony in Phase XI, died on the spot, Amarjeet Singh, the autorickshaw driver, sustained serious injuries, a police officer told Newsline.

According to eyewitnesses, the truck driver tried to speed away after the accident but a passer-by, Wariyam Singh of Barmajra village, managed to intercept it after a kilometre’s chase in his car. The driver, Ravi from Nepal, however, managed to flee, leaving the truck and cleaner Kamal Bhandari, the police said.

The police have registered a case against Ravi and launched a hunt to trace him.

The deceased sisters’ father Lakhpat, a daily wager, works in Himachal Pradesh, while mother Ratna earns a living by working as a domestic help. She was at work when the incident occurred. Ratna fell unconscious the moment she heard the news. “Our family has been shattered,” she said later. The couple has a mentally challenged son.