Updated

A truck carrying around 400 sheep has overturned on a highway overpass in southern Australia, causing the animals to rain onto the freeway below.

Police say the sheep fell onto the Princess Highway outside Melbourne on Thursday night after the truck crashed and flipped on its side, causing it to hang precariously from the overpass.

Several cars on the Princess Highway were damaged by the falling sheep and several people were injured. Paramedic Allan Eade says there were "a large number" of dead and injured sheep.

Driver Robert Leardi says he was lucky he was not seriously hurt when the falling livestock damaged his car. He says he was driving when "all of a sudden these sheep are falling down from the top of an overpass."