Powerlifter Saksham Yadav died in the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi on Sunday evening, hours after he was injured in a road accident on the Delhi-Panipat highway, IANS reported. Four athletes accompanying him – all national-level powerlifters – had died on the spot, and a sixth is being treated in hospital.

Yadav had won a gold medal at the 2017 World Championship for Powerlifting in Moscow.

The accident took place around 4 am on Sunday near the Alipur village close to the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana. The two injured, including Yadav, were taken to Max Hospital in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh locality. Yadav was later moved to the AIIMS trauma centre in an “extremely critical” condition.

“Saksham’s condition is extremely critical as he has severe head injuries,” a doctor had said before Yadav died. “He has internal bleeding in the head.”

The car that the athletes were travelling in first hit a road divider before hitting an electric pole, the police said. The athletes may have been speeding and may have lost control of the vehicle in the dense fog, officers said. They have not ruled out the possibility of drunken driving.

The other deceased were identified as Tikamchand, Saurabh, Yogesh and Harish Roy, Rohini Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta said.