At least eight people have been killed in an accident on the outskirts of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, officials say.
A lorry ploughed into several cars which were stopped on the highway after being involved in an earlier accident.
One of the vehicles appears to have been transporting a highly flammable liquid.
Videos from the scene show the highway, which links the cities of Guarenas and Caracas, engulfed in flames.
Firefighters and emergency services have been deployed from Caracas to extinguish the fire and tend to the injured.
The governor of Miranda state, where the crash site is located, said 16 vehicles had caught fire in the incident, which happened after 07:00 local time (11:00GMT).
Footage shared on social media shows a burnt-out passenger bus lying on its roof on the highway.
The deputy minister of risk management, Carlos Pérez Ampueda, described how the tragedy had unfolded.
“There was a minor crash involving a lorry and three cars on Caracas-Guarenas carriageway, where old asphalt was being replaced,” he told local radio station Unión Radio.
He said that a lorry then ploughed into this crash site. “The first accident happened at 07:00 and the second at 07:15,” he explained.
He added that the driver of the lorry might have not have been able to see the site of the first accident because of “poor meteorological conditions”.
But locals took to social media to complain that road maintenance had been neglected in many parts of the country during Venezuela’s economic crisis.
Some also pointed out that poorly serviced heavy goods vehicles had been involved in a number of recent accidents.
Source : BBC
