Chinese, Italian tourists among 7 killed in US after horror crash near Yellowstone

A pickup truck collided with a tour van carrying foreign travellers on a highway leading to Yellowstone National Park, leaving seven people dead and eight others injured, Idaho State Police said.

China’s consulate in San Francisco said that five Chinese citizens were killed in the accident and another eight were injured.

The crash happened just before 7.15pm on Thursday on US Highway 20 near Henry’s Lake State Park in eastern Idaho, police said. The state park is roughly 26km (16 miles) west of Yellowstone National Park.

Police have not said what exactly caused the wreck, but the Dodge Ram truck was travelling west while the Mercedes van was travelling east toward Yellowstone. Video from the scene showed clear weather conditions at the time.

Both vehicles caught fire, police said. The driver of the pickup and six people inside the Mercedes passenger van died. The truck driver was identified on Friday as Isaih Moreno, 25, of Humble, Texas. Identifying the others will take some time, according to police.

Fremont County coroner, Brenda Dye, told The New York Times that she was waiting for DNA test results to identify the six others because the bodies were unrecognisable. She said all six were from outside the US. Two were from Italy.