Sixteen people were killed when a blazing, overturned truck carrying ammonia exploded yesterday at the scene of a road accident in southeast Romania.

Six firefighters who had been battling the flames, two journalists and eight people in nearby cars died in the blast, a government statement said. Eleven people, including a 15-year-old girl, were injured, police said.

The huge explosion, which left a 14-metre wide crater, destroyed fire engines and six cars in Mihailesti, about 70 kilometres from Bucharest, the Interior Ministry statement said. Several houses were damaged.

Transport Minister Miron Mitrea, who went to the scene, said authorities would investigate whether the truck was transporting chemicals legally. He said tighter limits would be imposed on when trucks carrying dangerous goods could travel.

The journalists killed in the blast were from private Antena 1 television and were filming firefighters tackling the flames on the road linking the capital to the city of Buzau.

Television footage showed a taxi driver dead in his damaged car and other wrecked vehicles. Debris from the blast was hurled hundreds of metres.

"The explosion happened at around 0550 local (0250 GMT) as firefighters were trying to extinguish the fire," police spokeswoman Florentina Crucianu told Reuters by telephone.

President Ion Iliescu expressed his condolences and urged authorities to help the families of victims.

"The president thinks that a deep investigation of the circumstances of the explosion is needed as well as an analysis of traffic safety on public roads given the growing number of accidents involving lorries," the president's office said.

Antena 1 broadcast black and white images of the scene as a mark of mourning for their dead reporters, Ionut Barbu, 25, and Elena Popescu, 26.