NEW YORK: Seven international students of the Bowling Green State University, Indiana, were involved in a car accident early Jan 2, on a state highway near Angola, Indiana. Two of the students including an Indian and a Nepali died, while the five other students received minor injuries.

The accident occurred at approximately 12:20 am when the van they were driving east on the Indiana toll road entered the median and rolled several times. One of the students, Apsana Giri, 26, of Kathmandu, Nepal, who was doing a Master’s program in biology, died at the scene and the other, Sweety Mazumdar, 25, of Kolkata, India, who was doing a Master’s program in geology, was pronounced dead at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.

The injured students were identified by police as: Puran De, 22, of Bakhrabad, India, who is in a Doctoral program in photochemical sciences; Nigel Dsouza, 24, of Pune, India, doing his Doctoral program in biology; Mridutpal Nag, 25, of Kolkata, India, doing a Master’s program in applied statistics; Rahul Mukherjee, 24, of Ranchi, India, doing a Master’s program in communication studies; and Mohammad Chowdhury, 25, of Dhaka, Bangladesh who is doing a Bachelor’s program in physics.

In a statement, the Bowling Green State University President Sidney Ribeau said, “The Bowling Green State University community extends its deepest condolences to the families of two international students killed in the tragic accident earlier today. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, with the five other students involved in the accident, and with our international community in this time of sadness.”State Police said the two students killed in the van crash died when they were ejected from the van as it overturned and rolled several times along the snow-covered tollway about 45 miles north of Fort Wayne in northeastern Indiana.