TIRANA, April 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Eight people, including suspected seven migrants, died in a car accident in southern Albania at dawn on Tuesday after trying to flee police, authorities said. 

The accident occurred after the driver of the vehicle -- an Albanian -- lost control of the car near the southern Albanian city of Permet, just kilometres (miles) from the border with Greece. 

The authorities said a police patrol was trying to pull over the vehicle for an inspection when the driver sped away. 

The car then went off the road and fell into the Vjosa River, police said.

The passengers in the vehicle had just crossed the border between Greece and Albania, poolice said.

Albania lies along the so-called Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East hoping to reach the European Union. 

Nearly 100,000 migrants used this route between January and October 2023, according to the European border agency Frontex.