Seven people have been killed and 16 others were injured after a vehicle trying to evade a police check in southern Germany left a major road at high speed and crashed, authorities said.

The overcrowded vehicle appeared to be carrying migrants.

The accident happened near Muehldorf, east of Munich, on the A94 road, which leads to the Austrian border. The vehicle left the road and overturned.

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

They said prosecutors had opened a homicide investigation.

Bavaria’s top security official, state interior minister Joachim Herrmann, said that the dead included a young child and that 16 people were injured, some of them seriously.

“The inhuman behaviour of the smuggler, who was injured in the accident and wanted to evade being stopped by the federal police just to save his own skin, makes one speechless,” Mr Herrmann said.

All of those on board were at least slightly injured and some were seriously injured, German news agency dpa reported. They were taken to nearby hospitals.

The people packed into the vehicle included children. It was not immediately clear where they came from.

Germany has seen large numbers of migrants arriving in recent months.