Five people, including three children, were killed and 22 others were injured Saturday morning in a four-vehicle collision in an expressway tunnel in Ako, Hyogo Prefecture, police said.
The accident occurred at 6 a.m. in the Takayama Tunnel on the Sanyo Expressway.
Police confirmed that two of the dead were Takeru Senda, 26, and Hirofumi Tamaki, 30, from the city of Okayama.
The police also found the charred bodies of three children in a passenger car driven by Chiharu Takahashi, 30, also from Okayama.