ACCOKEEK, Md. – A car plowed into a group of street-racing fans obscured by a cloud of tire smoke on a highway Saturday, killing eight people and scattering bodies in the early morning darkness.

At least six others were injured in the gruesome wreck along a flat, isolated stretch of highway about 20 miles south of Washington known for illegal races.

Witnesses said about 50 people were gathered before dawn along Route 210 as two car spun their wheels, kicked up smoke and sped off, said Prince George’s County police Cpl. Clinton Copeland.

Fans had spilled onto the smoky, dark roadway to watch the cars drive away when a white Ford Crown Victoria unexpectedly came up from behind and smashed into them.

“There were just bodies everywhere; it was horrible,” said Crystal Gaines, 27, of Indian Head, whose father was killed.

Police interviewed the Crown Victoria driver, but no charges were pending, Copeland said. Authorities were looking for the drivers of the two cars involved in the race.

The combination of the smoke and the dark morning likely meant the unsuspecting driver could not see the crowd, police said. A tractor-trailer that came by shortly afterward may also have struck someone on the roadside as it tried to avoid the crash scene, according to investigators.

The Crown Victoria, which had a crumpled hood and a partially collapsed roof, ended up down an embankment with one of the victims lodged inside.

Bodies covered by white sheets lay in the road and on the shoulder across a 50-foot stretch of the road later Saturday morning before they were removed by the medical examiner.

Shoes were strewn about in the grass, and a pair of dark skid marks scarred the highway.

“It’s probably one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” Copeland said. “This is a situation that could have been avoided, and it’s a very tragic situation.”

Police could not confirm whether the car that struck the crowd had its lights on.

The victims’ ages ranged from their 20s to 60s, police said. Seven people were pronounced dead at the scene, and an eighth died later at a hospital.

Associated Press writer Haraz N. Ghanbari contributed to this report.