Eight people were killed and four were wounded Friday after a car with an Iranian license plate, and subsequently a minibus, fell into a trench dug up as a result of construction work for a culvert on a highway in northeastern Turkey.

Speaking to reporters after the incident, the Bayburt Governor Ali Hamza Pehlivan said the car fell into the five-meter canal near the Aydıntepe Y-junction on the Bayburt-Gümüşhane highway.

Soon after, a minibus which belonged to a long-distance transportation company and was moving in the Bayburt-Trabzon direction, fell into the same canal.

Medical rescue teams and firefighters were quickly dispatched to the scene of the incident.

Pehlivan said among the dead were citizens of Iranian nationality, and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims while wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

The governor stated that all necessary measures would be taken to investigate the cause of the incident. He added that due to the construction, only one lane had been in use on the highway.