At least three people died and 17 were injured after a one-ton truck ran over pedestrians in a parking lot in Sunchang County, North Jeolla Province at around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

According to the province’s fire service and the county’s health and medical center, three people died, five were seriously injured and 12 suffered light injuries. The three who died were a woman in her 80s and two men in their 70s.

The incident occurred in the parking lot of a chapter of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, where voting was underway to elect chapter heads for Nonghyup, the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and the National Forestry Cooperative Federation.

The truck’s driver, a man in his 70s, told authorities that he accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake in front of the voting booth after loading fertilizer from the chapter’s storehouse.

The head of Sunchang County’s health and medical center, Cho Seok-beom, warned that some of the seriously injured could become fatalities, while fire service officials said the death toll could rise given that most of the injured are seniors.