At least 10 people have been killed and more than a dozen injured after an overloaded van carrying 29 passengers crashed on a remote south Texas highway.

Authorities said the crash happened shortly after 4pm on Wednesday on US 281 in Encino, Texas, about 50 miles (80km) north of McAllen. The Brooks county sheriff, Urbino Martinez, said the van, designed to hold 15 passengers, was top-heavy and had tipped over when the driver lost control on a curve.

Sgt Nathan Brandley of the Texas department of public safety said the passenger van was traveling too fast and hit a utility pole before ramming into a stop sign. The vehicle was not involved in a pursuit, Brandley said.

Martinez said he believed most of the passengers were migrants. The driver was among the dead, the sheriff said.

The identities of those in the van were being withheld until relatives could be notified, said Brandley. No information about the van, including where it was registered or who owned it, was immediately released.

Encino is a community of about 140 residents about 2 miles south of the Falfurrias border patrol checkpoint.

An uptick in migrants attempting to cross the border has brought about a rise in the number of crashes involving vehicles often filled with people who pay large amounts to be smuggled into the country.

The crash comes months after 13 people were killed when an SUV packed with 25 migrants collided with a semi-truck in Holtville, California, near the US-Mexico border.

In another deadly crash in March, eight migrants were killed when their vehicle crashed into another truck while being pursued by police nearly 30 miles (50km) north of the border city of Del Rio, Texas. The driver faces a possible life sentence after pleading guilty to multiple federal charges.

Encino is a community of about 140 residents about 2 miles south of the Falfurrias border patrol checkpoint.