Fourteen travelers were crushed to death in an intercity road in southern Nigeria when a truck driver lost control and rammed into several vehicles, the local road safety police said on Friday.

Ten others were injured following the incident which occurred Thursday afternoon at a police checkpoint along the Ilesa-Akure expressway linking two cities in the southwest geopolitical region of Nigeria.

Peter Oke, sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, told Xinhua that the bodies of seven men and seven women were deposited at a morgue. The injured have been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Oke said the truck driver suddenly lost control of the vehicle and rammed into five vehicles at a police checkpoint on the other side of the expressway.

One witness told Xinhua the driver of the vehicle immediately fled the scene.

The road safety police said an investigation had been launched to apprehend the errant driver of the truck.