Lahad Datu fire and rescue station chief Sumsoa Rashid said they received an emergency call at 4.55pm and despatched 11 personnel to the scene.

The accident involved a lorry, two cars and a motorcycle travelling in opposite directions, and an excavator operating at a Pan Borneo Highway construction site.

The victim was among six people in one of the cars. Four of the occupants – a man and three children – had already been sent to hospital before the firefighters arrived, Berita Harian reported Sumsoa as saying.

Two women were found at the scene, with one confirmed dead by medical officers, while the other was injured.

The lorry driver and the motorcyclist had also been taken to hospital by the public before the team arrived.

The three men in the second car and the excavator driver were unhurt.