SYDNEY, May 27 – Five people died in two separate crashes within hours in the Australian state of Queensland, one of which is the subject of a homicide investigation.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) said in a statement that two people were killed when a car crashed into a tree near the small town of Brooloo, over 100 km north of Brisbane, shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday.
A man in the front passenger seat and a woman seated in the back were declared deceased at the scene. The driver, a 61-year-old male, was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries.
Following further investigations, he was arrested by detectives. The QPS said he was under police guard in hospital on Monday night and assisting detectives with an ongoing homicide investigation into the crash.
In a separate incident, three people were killed in a fiery highway crash between two vehicles near the town of Grosvenor, almost 300 km northwest of Brisbane, shortly after 5 p.m.
The QPS said that two vehicles were travelling in opposite directions on a highway when they collided. Emergency services arrived at the scene and found one of the vehicles engulfed in flames.
Two occupants of that vehicle as well as the sole occupant of the other, a 42-year-old woman, were declared deceased at the scene.
Police said that investigations into both crashes are ongoing.
XINHUA
