PHOENIX (Reuters) - A sport utility vehicle carrying seven suspected illegal immigrants was hit head-on by another car on an Arizona highway, killing eight people, state police said on Thursday. The crash occurred around 10 p.m. Wednesday when a car struck an SUV carrying nine people on State Route 79 south of Florence and about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said. The Arizona Department of Public Safety declined to say whether the SUV was being used as part of a smuggling operation or may have been connected to a government immigration facility in nearby Florence, more than 120 miles from the Mexico border. Authorities say nine people, including seven who were in the U.S. illegally, were killed in a head-on collision on an Arizona highway.The Arizona Department of Public Safety says the crash occurred late Wednesday when a vehicle struck an SUV carrying nine people on State Route 79 near Florence, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.Investigators don't know the cause of the crash.Officials say the SUV's driver and front-seat passenger were U.S. citizens, but seven others in the vehicle were immigrants in the country illegally.The driver, front-seat passenger and five others in the SUV were killed. They were both killed in the crash Wednesday that also left four Guatemalan men dead and three injured who had been in the SUV.
Eight people are killed in a head-on crash near Florence, Arizona, United States, after a car strikes an SUV.