Multiple people have died after a car crash led to the vehicle bursting into flames in Victoria’s northeast.
Emergency services were called to Mansfield-Woods Point Road in Piries, about 214km northeast of Melbourne, at about 7am where a burnt-out vehicle was located.
The driver is believed to have lost control of the vehicle and crashed before a fire engulfed the car, killing all occupants.
It is unknown how many people were in the car at the time of the crash.
Police and detectives are on the scene to determine the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Multiple people have died after a car crash led to the vehicle bursting into flames in East Victoria on Sunday morning (pictured)
The vehicle could be seen burnt out in a field just metres away from the road, the blaze also having burnt through a ring of grass surrounding it.
Northbound lanes on Mansfield-Woods Point Road have been closed between Jenkin Road and Chapel Hill Road, according to VicTraffic.
Motorists have been urged to avoid the area and instead use the Goulburn Valley and Maroondah highways.
The deadly crash adds to a horror year of deaths on Victorian roads with 252 lives already lost in 2023, a 15-year high for the state.
The Melbourne Cup long weekend saw 13 people killed in road accidents, pushing the total figure past the 241 deaths on the state’s roads in 2022.
‘The fact we’ve also surpassed lives lost for all of last year and reached the highest number of fatalities in 15-years is just truly tragic,’ Glenn Weir, Road Policing Assistant Commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Police believe the driver lost control of the vehicle shortly before the crash which led to a fire breaking out, killing all occupants (pictured, police on the scene)
The crash occurred on Mansfield-Woods Point Road in Piries, south of Mansfield and about 214km northeast of Melbourne (pictured)
Among the 13 deaths were three adults and two children who were killed when a car crashed into the beer garden in front of the historic Royal Hotel at Daylesford, northwest of Melbourne.
The driver is believed to have suffered a medical episode, did not have drugs or alcohol in his system and his only previous brushes with the law are speeding tickets.
Commissioner Weir said police found the figures ‘concerning’ and urged those driving on Victorian roads to remain cautious.
‘With two months to go in the year, it is incredibly concerning that we find ourselves in this position,’ he said.
‘This should be a wake up call to everyone – don’t think that road trauma can’t happen to you, because it can.’
More to come.