Seven people have died after a vehicle trying to evade a police check in southern Germany left a major road at high speed and crashed, authorities said.

Police said that initial investigations showed that it was “a suspected smuggler vehicle with more than 20 people on board”.

The crash involving a Mercedes Vito van took place on the A94 motorway to the east of Munich, which leads to the Austrian border.

The vehicle began speeding up during the chase, police said.

The overcrowded van, which had children on board, overturned several times during the incident.

A dozen people sustained mild to severe injuries in the crash and were taken to nearby hospitals, police added.

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It wasn’t immediately clear where the people packed into the van came from.

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The Austrian-registered van was designed to carry nine people, and it wouldn’t have been possible for many of the people on board to use seat belts, German news agency dpa reported.

Prosecutors have opened a homicide investigation, police said.

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