TEHRAN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and 11 others injured on Tuesday in an eight-vehicle chain-reaction pileup in the northern Iranian province of Alborz, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The accident, which involved collisions among two trucks and six sedans, took place on a freeway in the province, IRNA quoted Ahmad Mahdavi, head of Alborz's medical emergency center, as saying.
Three ambulances and a team of rescuers were dispatched to the scene after the accident, and the injured people were transferred to the hospital, Mahdavi added.
Road accidents and traffic fatalities typically increase in the days leading up to and during the Nowruz holidays, which celebrate the arrival of the Iranian New Year that falls on March 20 this year.
Speaking at a ceremony in the capital Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian traffic police chief Teymour Hosseini said 177 people had been killed and 6,200 others injured in road accidents in the country during the past five days, IRNA reported.
