FIFTY-THREE workers were injured in a five-lorry collision on Pioneer Road on Thursday morning.

They are mostly foreign workers who have been taken to the National University Hospital, Alexandra Hospital and Singapore General Hospital in six ambulances and two ambulance buses. The seriousness of their injuries is not known.

Another 20 casualties with light injuries were treated at the scene.

Two lorry drivers and three passengers were trapped in their vehicles and had to be extricated by rescuers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force, using spreader and cutter. One driver complained of chest pain and another had cuts on his legs.

The lorries, carrying the workers to work, were about 100 metres away from the junction of Pioneer Road and Pioneer Section 1 when they hit each other bumper-to-bumper at about 6.20 am.