Four Pathankot-based persons were killed when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary truck near Naushera Majha Singh village on the Gurdaspur-Amritsar National Highway (NH) in Batala police district around 4 am on Tuesday.The deceased were identified as Vikram Kumar, Naresh Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Rahi. The rescue teams, including those from the Batala police, had to cut open the car to extricate the bodies.“All four seemed to be teenagers. They were travelling to Amritsar. The car hit the parked truck from the rear. After the accident, the truck driver reportedly fled towards Batala,” sources said.An official said Naresh Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Rahi were undergoing treatment at a drug deaddiction centre in Himachal Pradesh from where they managed to escape yesterday. They met Vikram, who worked in a private firm, on Monday night in Pathankot. Fearing that the cops would be on their trail, all three, accompanied by Vikram, planned to go to Amritsar.SSP Dr Mehtab Singh said a case had been registered and investigations were being conducted.Local residents claimed the collision was so powerful that it took the police quite some time before they could take out the bodies. “The road safety force and the Batala police had to use heavy cutters and iron rods to retrieve the bodies,” recalled an eyewitness.“The police are examining the CCTV footage to identify the absconding driver. The families have been informed and the bodies sent to the Batala Civil Hospital for autopsy,” said SSP Dr Mehtab Singh.