NEW DELHI — At least nine children were killed and 20 others injured on Saturday after a speeding vehicle rammed a crowd outside a government school in northern India.

The crash occurred around 1:30 p.m., as children were leaving school for the day, near Muzaffarpur, in Bihar State.

“The accident happened on the road while the children were trying to cross,” Dharmendra Singh, a local official, said in an interview with Zee Hindustan, a Hindi language news channel.

Mithilesh Yadav, who saw the crash, told The Hindustan Times newspaper that the vehicle, a Bolero, had swerved to avoid another accident and hit the children. Gaurav Pandey, the deputy police superintendent for the area, told the newspaper that the Bolero’s driver had abandoned the vehicle and fled.