The girls, three of them sisters, were returning from school when the accident took place. The police said residents and family members stoned the truck and torched it.

“By the time we arrived, the truck was on fire. We are looking for the driver,” a senior police officer said.

Meena (11) was killed while her sisters Savita and Suman and a friend sustained serious head and back injuries from the impact. Meena’s father, Bir Pal, a tailor, said: “We were told they were crossing the road when the speeding truck killed my little girl. We want the driver punished. He should not be spared.”

In separate road accidents reported from across the city in the past 24 hours, five people lost their lives. An unidentified man was killed when he was hit by a Blueline bus in Gulabi Bagh, near the Prasad Nagar Metro station. The bus has been impounded and the driver has been arrested.

In the second incident, a speeding Maruti van rammed into a 25-year-old man in Paschim Vihar on Thursday. The Maruti van driver, Manish Jain, has been arrested.

A Blueline bus crushed Babu Lal (40) in Sarai Rohilla, Central Delhi, on Wednesday. The accused bus driver fled the spot. In the fourth incident, a 32-year-old man was crushed to death by an unidentified vehicle in Rohini.