A severe snow storm Thursday injured dozens of people while causing a dramatic multi-vehicle pile-up involving at least 100 vehicles south of Edmonton.

"It was like a domino effect - one vehicle after another, just smashing, smashing, smashing until about 60-70 cars," Robert Mitchell, a local man told CTV Edmonton.

Three people were reported killed when their car crashed with a rushing truck about 180 kilometers northwest of Edmonton. Three others were said to have been injured seriously.

The collision in South Edmonton, on the other hand, resulted in dozens of vehicles crashing into one another.

"And from that collision we ended up getting a chain reaction, so multiple other collisions occurred from there, due to the poor visibility and the icy roads," Canadian Press quoted a local person Karolina Malik as saying.

Alberta Health Services has treated around eighty people at the crash site who suffered moderate and minor injuries according to Kerry Williamson a hospital staff at the service center.

Derek Fildebrandt, a local man has tweeted a number of stunning photos of car crashes from the scene. The tweet says "Hitchhiking my way to Edmonton via Wetaskiwin on country roads."

Police have urged the people in the region to stay off all area highways unless travelling is critically necessary.

"Unless travel is absolutely critical, police request the public stay off all area highways," Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

The police department has temporarily closed a 60-kilometer main road between Calgary and Edmonton.

The city was expected to receive around ten centimeters of snow fall Thursday and some areas in the city received as much as 25 centimeters according to the local media. 

To contact the editor, e-mail: