Two of the nine labourers, who were attacked while they were sleeping in a local market in Lonavala on Friday night, succumbed to their injuries on Sunday. The toll from the gruesome incident has now gone up to seven. The police have arrested two persons in connection with the crime.

The critically wounded labourers, who were admitted to a hospital on Saturday morning, passed away in the night, hospital authorities said.

The murders came to light on Saturday morning when some sweepers in the Lonavala vegetable market came to clean the premises and stumbled upon the bodies of nine labourers lying in a pool of blood.

Five of the victims, who were asleep when the culprits attacked them with a stone, died on the spot while the four injured were shifted to a hospital.

The police, who earlier suspected the murders to be the work of an insane man, later changed the theory with the arrest of two alleged killers - Manish Pande and Baban Yadav - who confessed to the crime.

Paltry sums of money earned by the workers, who lived a hand to mouth existence, were stolen by the two attackers who assaulted their victims with a stone and wooden rod while they were asleep in the market premises, police said.

Both the victims and the killers were believed to be under the influence of alcohol when the crime was committed, the police added.

The hill station township observed a bandh on Saturday and citizens took out a protest march till the police station.