Seven wedding guests killed in car crash

Seven relatives heading home from a wedding reception have been killed after their car veered off the road in southern Italy, crashed in a ditch and caught fire.

Four of the dead were thrown from the vehicle by the force of the crash and the other three were burned inside.

The news agency ANSA says the three killed inside the car were children - two of them aged five and one aged two. All seven were members of two related families.

The seven had been returning home from a wedding reception near Cosenza, at about 3am when the driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel.

The vehicle, an Alfa Romeo, broke through the protective fence and ploughed into a watery ditch before slamming into a hill and catching fire.