Two dead, seven injured in Dakar Rally collision

Two people were killed and seven others were injured in a head-on collision between a Dakar Rally support vehicle and a taxi near Peru's border with Chile, race organisers said on Thursday.

The incident happened at 9:30 pm local time on Wednesday (0330 GMT Thursday) 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the frontier, a statement on the race website dakar.com said.

One of two taxis hit the support vehicle head-on while a second cab overturned as its driver tried to avoid the collision.

Two people in the first taxi, including the driver, were killed and seven people, four of them Peruvian, were injured. Three of the injured were in the rally support vehicle. All were taken to hospital for treatment.