SAN SALVADOR – Two teenagers – one from Guatemala and the other from Honduras – and three Salvadoran adults burned to death when their automobile collided with a tractor-trailer on a highway in central El Salvador, officials said.

Karen Guadalupe Guzman, a 14-year-old from Guatemala, and Doris Sanchez Matute, a 14-year-old from Honduras, died in the accident Monday, police and the ISNA child-welfare agency said.

Nurse Gloria Reyes, 46, driver Luis Edgardo Diaz Martinez, 45, and police officer Jose Rosa Leiva, 37, were also killed when the ISNA vehicle crashed and caught fire.

The three adults were taking the teenagers from the ISNA office in San Miguel, a city about 138 kilometers (86 miles) east of San Salvador, to the capital.

The girls were the victims of people traffickers and were in the custody of ISNA, the agency’s director, Luis Salazar, told reporters.

The accident occurred on the Pan American Highway near Apastepeque, a city in San Vicente province, a fire department spokesman told Efe.

The two vehicles collided and “the ISNA car caught fire due to the impact,” the fire department spokesman said.

The truck went into the ISNA vehicle’s lane, media reports said.

The truck driver, who has not been identified, fled the scene, some press reports said.

Other media outlets, however, reported that the truck driver was under arrest. EFE