FLORENCE — Authorities say eight people, including four who were in the U.S. illegally, were killed in a head-on collision on an Arizona highway.
Earlier reports put the death toll at nine people.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety says the crash occurred late Wednesday when a vehicle struck an SUV carrying nine people on State Route 79 near Florence, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.
DPS declined to say whether the SUV involved in the collision was being used as part of a smuggling operation or may have been connected to a government immigration facility in nearby Florence.
However, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said the immigrants killed were not detainees.
Officials say the SUV's driver and front-seat passenger were U.S. citizens, but seven others in the vehicle were immigrants in the country illegally.
The driver, front-seat passenger and four others in the SUV were killed. Two others were taken to hospitals.
The driver and front-seat passenger in the other vehicle also were killed.
Investigators don't know the cause of the crash on State Route 79.
Arizona has been the scene of a number of fatal crashes involving immigrants who were being smuggled, including one near the border nearly a decade ago in which 10 people died after an SUV rolled over on a highway.
Some crashes occurred on remote routes being used by smugglers after the government ramped up personnel and surveillance technology at the border.
Smugglers sometimes lost control of vehicles while fleeing Border Patrol agents.
In Texas, five people were killed in June when an SUV carrying a dozen immigrants flipped while fleeing agents.
CORRECTION: The current version of this story has a different number of fatalities than originally reported. Authorities put that number at eight.
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