Up to 13 people were killed and four more wounded in a car crash 110 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, local authorities said on Saturday.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry's traffic directorate said in a statement that a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a minibus collided as a result of inattentive driving and speeding in the north of Babil Province's capital of Hilla.

An earlier statement by the directorate said that the accident took place around midnight.

A local security source told Xinhua that nine schools teachers were among the dead while returning in the minibus from Karbala to Baghdad.