A massive foggy pile-up in China on Wednesday involving several hundred vehicles left one dead, state television reported.

Aerial images show a large number of cars, vans and trucks upside down on a section of highway in the center of the country. Traffic appears cut off.

Pictures have immortalized cars having finished their race on the roof of the vehicles in front of them.

This rare extensive pileup involved at least 200 vehicles, according to an estimate by official media.

According to local authorities quoted by the public broadcaster CCTV, low visibility due to fog is the cause of this accident, which occurred Wednesday morning near Zhengzhou (center).

Traffic on the affected stretch of highway was able to resume in the afternoon, Zhengzhou police said on their official account.

Despite recent road infrastructure and stricter legislation in recent years, road accidents are still frequent in China, due to non-compliance with the highway code by some drivers.