One person was killed and seven injured, several seriously, in a car crash on the A2 between Amsterdam and Utrecht on Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses said the crash happened when a car ploughed into the one in front at high speed. The maximum speed limit on the stretch of road near Maarssen is 100 kph.

‘I saw the car in my mirror doing at least 200 kph,’ Dylan Groenewegen told local broadcaster RTV Utrecht. ‘It rammed into the other car and they both flew through the air.’

Another eyewitness told how he was overtaken by an ‘idiotic driver’ in a Volkswagen Golf, who raced past him on the hard shoulder.

Two helicopter ambulances were used to help ferry the victims to hospital.

According to the AD, three of the injured were children in the first car. The driver of the car thought to have caused the accident has been arrested and taken to the prison hospital in Scheveningen, police said.

The A2 was closed while the emergency services clear the wreckage and analyse the crash scene and reopened mid-afternoon.

Auto’s die betrokken zijn bij zwaar ongeluk op #A2 bij Maarssen worden geborgen. pic.twitter.com/ggs8vRMvjn

— Jeroen Wetzels (@jeroenwetzels) December 30, 2015