MIAMI - AT LEAST eight people died on Friday when a tractor-trailer slammed into a line of cars stopped on a north-east Oklahoma turnpike by an earlier accident, leaving twisted metal and debris strewn about the highway.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt George Brown said traffic was stopped about 1pm on the Will Rogers Turnpike north-east of Miami because of an earlier crash when the big rig slammed into at least three cars, which then crashed into more vehicles.

'It looks like a war zone,' he said. 'There's mangled metal everywhere. There's debris, fluids, dead bodies.' Brown said at least eight people were killed, but he feared rescue crews might find more bodies as they worked to get to an automobile pinned under the semitrailer.

Investigators don't believe the driver of the tractor-trailer tried to stop before the crash, Lt Brown said. The speed limit in the area is 120kmh.

Jericho Malphrus, 17, was driving with his mother to his hometown of Orient, Ohio, after touring a Bible college in Broken Arrow. He said he saw a young girl being removed from wreckage that contained the bodies of two adults in the front seat.

'Mainly what struck me was the amount of debris everywhere,' Mr Malphrus said.

'There were clothes and snacks and debris. Someone's suitcase had busted open and a little girl's clothes were everywhere.'

Lt Brown said the truck driver was taken to an area hospital, as was a 12-year-old girl who was pinned for a time in a wrecked vehicle before emergency workers could free her. He did not know their medical conditions. -- AP