SYDNEY - Nine people have been hospitalized after they were injured when a vehicle crashed through a fence during a race event north of Sydney on Saturday night.

Police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) said in a statement that the vehicle was competing in a race when it crashed through a fence and hit a grandstand in the small town of Walcha, 320 km north of Sydney, at around 6:15 pm on Saturday.

Spectators rendered assistance until ambulance paramedics arrived and transported seven men and two women, all aged between 20 and 75, to a nearby hospital.

Of those nine people, a 54-year-old man was critically injured and three others were seriously injured and were transferred to major hospitals overnight.

NSW Police said that officers attending the scene were told that the 27-year-old male driver of the vehicle was involved in an on-track collision immediately before crashing through the fence.

Specialist officers from the crash investigation unit were deployed to Walcha to examine the scene.