HAMPDEN — An SUV going the wrong way on Interstate 95 on Sunday slammed into a pickup truck, killing both drivers, state police said.

The incident occurred on I-95?s southbound side between Carmel and Newburgh at about 7 p.m. It forced state police to close the highway in that area and reroute traffic at the Coldbrook Road exit, state police and witnesses said.

The southbound lanes in that area will be closed for several hours, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said.

State police troopers were tracking reports of a silver SUV going northbound on the southbound side of the highway when the accident was reported, McCausland said.

Michael Rocque, a faculty member at the University of Maine, reported via Twitter a “car going very fast the wrong way on 95. Almost hit me.” Attempts to contact Rocque were not immediately successful.

Neighbors living on North County Road said they heard a loud bang and didn’t know what it was until they ventured from their homes and saw the smoking vehicles, said Trever Kohls, 19, of Hampden.

“From what you can see, both air bags deployed,” said Kohls, who was visiting his parents on North County Road when the crash occurred.

It wasn’t clear to Kohls which vehicle was going the wrong way, he said.

Pictures Kohls took with his cellphone show the SUV heavily enmeshed with the pickup truck.