A pile-up caused by a dust storm killed six people in the United States on Monday. More than 30 injured were taken to hospitals, according to the Illinois state police. Television footage showed a picture of the devastation, with dozens of smoldering wrecked cars, including trucks, wedged together. Some vehicles came to a stop at the side of the road. A thick, earth-colored layer of dust lay over everything.

The pile-up happened around 11 a.m. local time on the Saint-Louis-Chicago freeway near the town of Farmersville. It extended over a length of three kilometers in both directions. Two articulated lorries caught fire in the accident, the police said. A total of around 30 trucks and 40 to 60 cars were involved in the collision.

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The many rear-end collisions are due to the fact that strong winds have blown the dust from fields in the direction of the highway and have completely blinded drivers, the authorities said. In July 2021, eight people were killed in a pile-up caused by a sandstorm in the US state of Utah in the western United States.