KUANTAN: Three men died and five others were injured, three seriously, in a seven-vehicle pileup at KM 42 of the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway today.

A spokesman for the Pahang Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) Pahang said they received an emergency call at 4.13 am regarding a road crash involving four cars, a three-ton lorry and two trailers.

The crash involved 13 casualties, comprising nine men and four women.

"Immediately after arriving at the scene, the firemen carried out the work of removing the victims from the wrecked vehicles and extinguishing a trailer truck that was on fire," he said when contacted today.

He said the dead were identified as Mohd Ridzuan Zulkafly, 40, Muhamad Zaimi Shariff, 39, and Muhammad Azizul Fitrie Md Zairi, 23. The bodies were handed over to the police for further action.

He said the injured victims, comprising two women and three men, were sent to a hospital for treatment.

Five others involved in the crash escaped injuries.

-- BERNAMA