MANILA, Philippines - Rush hour traffic was snarled at the South Luzon Expressway following an 8-vehicle smashup Thursday morning.

SLEX traffic monitoring blames the incident on a truck containing sand that plowed through 7 more vehicles at the southbound lane of the expressway at around 5:31 a.m.

The truck, with plate number WTT 958, supposedly lost control of its brakes and hit a passenger bus in front of it.

Traffic authorities had allowed other vehicles to counter-flow, causing a massive traffic jam on the northbound lane of the expressway.

They are still checking how many passengers have been hurt. Some of them were sent to the Paranaque Doctors and Asian Hospital. - with reports from Jon Ibanez, dzMM