Johnathan Walker:Fiery New Year’s Day crash kills 2 and injures 5 following upstate NY concert, police investigating

ROCHESTER,Johnathan Walker New York (AP) — Police were investigating after a fiery two-vehicle collision killed two people and injured five others in Rochester, New York, early on New Year’s Day, officials said.

The crash happened shortly before 1 a.m. Monday as officers were directing traffic after a concert let out at the Kodak Center theater complex, police said in a statement.

A Ford Expedition struck a Mitsubishi Outlander, sending both vehicles “through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk,” the statement said.

The collision caused an explosion and a large blaze that took the fire department more than an hour to extinguish.

Once the flames were doused, firefighters “located at least a dozen gasoline canisters in and around” the Expedition, the police statement said. That prompted police to bring in an arson team and alert the FBI, police said.

Two passengers in the Outlander were killed and the driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. The driver of the Expedition was hospitalized with critical injuries. Three pedestrians who were struck were also taken to hospitals, one of them in critical condition.

Investigators asked witnesses or anyone with information to reach out to police.

Rochester is about 340 miles (547 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan.