ISLAMABAD, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people including seven school children and a driver were killed and four others injured when a passenger train hit a vehicle carrying school kids in Pakistan's central Lodhran district on Friday, officials said.

Khwaja Saad Rafique, federal minister for railways, said that the school vehicle was crossing the railway track through the open railway crossing when it was hit by the train in Jalalpur area of Lodhran, a district located in the country's east Punjab province.

The minister said that he has ordered an investigation into the incident, but apparently the accident happened due to the negligence of the train driver and gateman at the Lodhran crossing.

Local Urdu TV channel Dunya reported that the gateman failed to close the railway crossing gates on Friday morning, and the vehicle driver could not judge the speeding train due to dense fog and attempted to cross the track, resulting in the fatal accident.

The four injured school kids were shifted to a nearby hospital where all of them are said to be in critical condition.

Police said that the dead and injured children were aged between five to eight years.