6 dead as truck hits Dutch barbecue party

Dutch police yesterday said six people were killed and seven other people hurt after a truck ran off the top of a dike road and ploughed into revellers at a neighbourhood barbecue. The accident happened around six pm on Saturday when the Spanish-registered lorry left the road in the village of Nieuw-Beijerland, 30 kilometres south of Rotterdam. The victims were three women aged 28, 32 and 75, and three men aged 41, 50 and 62, all from the local area, police said. One of the injured was in a critical condition in hospital. "We now have six people killed and seven injured, one seriously after yesterday's accident," police spokeswoman Mirjam Boers told AFP. Boers confirmed the 46-year-old driver from Spain had been arrested "and was not under the influence of alcohol," at the time of the accident. "We are still investigating what exactly happened," she said.