Authorities yesterday continued to investigate the causes of a car accident that killed nine people, including four children, in a four-car pileup in central Greece on Saturday at one of the country’s most dangerous stretches of highway.

The accident happened at around 6.40 p.m. some 200 kilometers north of Athens along the highway which connects the Greek capital with Thessaloniki.

Police said that pileup was caused by two cars that were traveling in opposite directions and crashed into each other at a point were there are no barriers separating traffic lanes. The two cars, which immediately caught fire, were then struck by two passing vehicles.

Eight out of the nine people killed were burnt alive, police said.

Seven schoolchildren died at the same place in September last year when their bus was hit by a truck, while last month three elderly people were killed when their bus overturned.