Nine killed in vehicle rollover in Arizona

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Nine people were killed and nine injured when a sports utility vehicle packed with suspected illegal immigrants rolled on a desert highway south of Phoenix, police said on Thursday.

Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said the vehicle ran off state route 79 a few miles south of Phoenix and rolled on Thursday morning.

"The vehicle hit a wash at a high rate of speed and flipped over. ... People appear to have been thrown from the vehicle," Graves told Reuters by telephone.

"We have a suspicion that the people involved were undocumented aliens," he added.

Graves said the injured were flown to local area hospitals for treatment.

Two years ago, ten people were killed when an SUV packed with illegal immigrants rolled on a desert road near Yuma in far western Arizona.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor, editing by Todd Eastham)