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Two women have died after being struck by a car while crossing the road near Ardee, Co Louth.
The incident occurred at about 6.30pm on Monday on the main N2 Dublin to Derry road at Hunterstown, north of Collon and near Ardee, gardaí said.
The women, believed to be aged in their late 60s or early 70s, had just alighted from a bus that was travelling north.
Reports say they were crossing the busy stretch of road when they were struck by an oncoming vehicle. Although it was dark at the time, the stretch of road was reasonably well-lit as it is near a large restaurant and venue, the Hunterstown Inn.
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The bodies of the women were removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for postmortems.
The driver of the vehicle involved in the incident is not believed to have suffered injury, but was being treated for shock.
The scene of the crash was sealed off to allow for a Garda technical examination. Gardaí said the road would be closed overnight and most of Tuesday to allow Garda forensic crash investigators to examine the scene. Traffic diversions were put in place.