A truck caught fire after colliding with a construction vehicle near the city of Gyor around 4.30 am, killing one person and snarling traffic, police said.

About half an hour later, a minibus with Moldovan license plates slammed into a truck that stopped on the highway following the first accident. The second crash killed seven people and seriously injured two, police said.

Authorities closed one lane of the M1 highway toward Austria.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar expressed condolences to the families of the victims.