Australian driver kills 17 kangaroos

At least seventeen kangaroos have been run over by a driver in Australia's Queensland state, an animal rights group said in statement on Monday.

"They've definitely been deliberately run over," said Michael Beatty, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

Sixteen kangaroo carcasses - many of them young "roos" - were discovered along a 100-meter (328-foot) stretch of road, while one was euthanized due to its injuries.

"You can quite clearly see the tire tracks where they're gone off the road to hit them," Beatty added.

"What happens is the kangaroos usually come to the side of the road at night. There are a lot of them in this area, but this driver definitely ran down the kangaroos deliberately. It was no accident," the spokesman told DPA news agency.

This is not the first time the marsupials have been targeted by Australian motorists. In October 2015, Australian police charged a man with animal cruelty for killing more than 100 grey kangaroos by driving over them.

The RSPCA asked for eye witnesses to come forward and provide any information linked to the latest incident in driver-related kangaroo killings.

ls/rg (AP, dpa)