More than 50 U.S. middle school students in the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia were injured Saturday in a chain collision involving about a half-dozen school buses, according to local media reports.

The accident occurred on the westbound Interstate-20 in the Newton County, when around 200 students from the Burke County Middle School in Waynesboro were riding on the buses to a Six Flags amusement park near Atlanta, the capital of Georgia.

As traffic slowed for an upcoming lane closure due to construction work, one of the school buses struck the rear of another, causing a chain reaction of crashes among other buses, Gordy Wright, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety, was quoted as saying.

Two bus drivers were rescued from the wreckage and sent to a hospital in Atlanta, while more than 50 students were taken to Newton Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, Wright said.

The police said that seven buses were involved in the accident, but Burke County school officials put the number at six.