KABUL (AFP) - At least 15 members of a single family were killed when a pickup truck veered off the road and plunged into a river in northern Afghanistan, officials said.

Women and children were among the dead after Saturday's (May 27) accident, which took place in Salang district on the main highway between Parwan and Kabul.

Two children were also injured in the accident and taken to hospital, said provincial spokesman Waheeda Shahkar, adding that the victims were all from one family.

Alizai Ahmadi, a local police chief, confirmed the accident but put the death toll at 16. Ahmadi said six women and six children were among the dead.

The Kabul-Parwan highway connecting the north and south of the country is heavily used by many vehicles packed with people, and is notorious for crashes.

War-torn Afghanistan has some of the world's most dangerous roads due to wear and tear, a lack of enforcement of traffic rules and decrepit passenger vehicles.

In December last year, 14 people were killed and dozens wounded when a bus collided with a truck in the western province of Farah.

In one of the country's worst traffic accidents, 73 people were killed when two buses and an oil tanker burst into flames in a head-on collision in the eastern province of Ghazni in May 2016.