Seven soldiers were injured after armoured military vehicles crashed into each other on a Bavarian highway, German police said.

Several German media outlets reported that the vehicles involved in the crash on Monday belonged to the US military, but German police said they were not authorised to give out information on the nationality of the injured soldiers.

The public affairs office for the US Army Europe and Africa in Germany did not immediately return calls seeking confirmation.

Police in Amberg in southern Germany said that “a military convoy was driving on the A6 highway on manoeuvre duty, and that for still unknown reasons a rear-end collision involving four armoured vehicles occurred”.

“According to initial findings, seven soldiers were injured and brought to hospital, two of them via rescue helicopter,” Tobias Mattes from Amberg police said in a statement, adding that one of the soldiers was in a serious condition.

The crash occurred at around 10.55am local time on the highway stretch between the Sulzbach-Rosenberg and Amberg-West junctions in the direction toward the Czech Republic.

The highway was blocked until the late afternoon.

Amberg is 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the US Army Garrison Bavaria in Grafenwoehr.