Eleven people have died in northern Greece on Saturday morning after a car thought to be carrying migrants crashed head-on with a truck and burst into flames, police said.

Firefighters recovered 11 bodies from the car, which had been travelling towards Thessaloniki. The driver of the truck, which had been heading towards the town of Kavala, escaped the fire unscathed.

Greek police said the car involved in the crash had been used for migrant smuggling in the past. It had failed to stop earlier Saturday when police officers tried to pull it over for a check.

Last June, a migrant smuggling van carrying 16 people, mainly from Syria and Iran, crashed near Kavala, killing six people including three children.