Agartala, April 17 (IANS): Two brothers were critically injured and later died when they tried to rescue their mother from an auto-rickshaw stuck on the tracks in Tripura, the police said here on Monday.

Sudip Sarkar, 32, his younger brother Samir Sarkar, 27, and their ailing mother Asharani Sarkar, 65, were critically injured when a speeding train hit their auto-rickshaw at Mekhlipara on Sunday, a police official said.

He said that Sudip and Samir subsequently died at the government-run Gobind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital while their mother was in serious condition.

The youths were taking their ailing mother to the medical college and hospital for treatment by an auto-rickshaw when it got stuck on the railway track, leading to the accident.

"The two bothers desperately tried to unchain the auto-rickshaw and to rescue their mother before the accident but failed," the police official said quoting the eyewitness.

He said that there is no level-crossing on the Mekhlipara railway lin and this leads to numerous fatal accidents in the area.