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Emergency services at the scene of the accident on the A2
Photo: Matthias Strauss / dpa
Three people died in a serious traffic accident on Autobahn 2 near Burg in Jerichower Land (Saxony-Anhalt).
A truck driver drove into a traffic jam on Tuesday afternoon, said a police spokeswoman.
A car with a caravan was pushed onto a truck driving in front of it.
The collision caused the truck to catch fire, police said.
The truck and the car with the caravan burned out completely at the accident site.
The fatalities are the truck driver and the two occupants of the car, said a police spokeswoman late Tuesday evening.
Further details on the identity of the dead are not known.
Another truck driver was seriously injured in the accident.
He is being treated in the hospital.
A2 temporarily completely closed in both directions
The fire brigade had started the rescue work in the early afternoon.
However, these were particularly difficult because, according to the police, the car that caught fire was a hybrid vehicle.
It had to be flooded in a special container because of the battery, the spokeswoman said.
The A2 was initially completely blocked in both directions.
Traffic was diverted in the direction of Hanover at the Burg-Zentrum junction and in the direction of Berlin at the Lostau junction.
At around 8:40 p.m., the lane towards Berlin was reopened.
The lane towards Hanover will remain closed indefinitely due to the salvage and cleaning work, it said late in the evening.
The accident happened about 30 kilometers from the Brandenburg border.
The A2 is an important east-west connection.
Again and again there are serious accidents involving trucks.
On Tuesday morning near Marienborn (Börde district) on Saxony-Anhalt's border with Lower Saxony, a truck drove unbraked into a traffic jam and pushed three other trucks into each other.
Three truck drivers were seriously injured, police said.
Several liters of operating materials were distributed on the road and in the embankment.
The autobahn was still closed there in the evening in the direction of Hanover.
aar/dpa
