KASHMIRI separatists launched street protests today and called a general strike for after an Indian army truck killed seven people in a road accident.

The truck hit a taxi on a main road on the outskirts of Srinagar, the main city of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.

Two of the taxi’s passengers and the driver died on the spot, while four other passengers, including a pregnant woman, died later in hospital.

Hundreds of local residents, chanting anti-India and pro-independence slogans, then hurled rocks at the army convoy.

Soldiers fired live ammunition in the air and later used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters.

Top local police officer Abdul Ghani Mir said that the truck driver had been arrested and the cause of the accident investigated.

Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani called for a general strike today to mourn the deaths.