TOKYO, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Two deaths were confirmed after a head-on car collision on an expressway took place in the northeast Japanese prefecture of Tochigi, local police reported.

The accident took place at 6:30 a.m. local time on the southbound lanes of the Tohoku Expressway in Nasushiobara, where two children were also injured.

According to local police and fire department officials, a kei car, or Japan's lightest expressway-legal motor vehicle, was reported driving in the wrong direction on the expressway before colliding head-on with a passenger car.

Both drivers of the vehicles died in the crash, while a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl who were passengers in one of the vehicles, sustained head injuries.

Local police are currently investigating the exact cause and details of the accident. ■