At least 8 British troops were injured in a highway pileup during a NATO exercise in Estonia

TALINN, Estonia — A dozen soldiers, including at least eight British troops, were injured in a major traffic wreck during a NATO exercise in Estonia last week, officials said Monday.

The soldiers were returning to their base in Tapa during a snowstorm when their minivans were involved in a chain-reaction pileup triggered by a two-car collision on the Tallinn-Narva highway.

Seventeen people, including 12 soldiers, were injured and hospitalized in the wreck, the Police and Border Guard Board told Postimees newspaper.

Eight British troops were flown back to the U.K. for further treatment, a spokesperson for the ministry of defense said. Five of those patients have been discharged and three remain at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The British soldiers were deployed to Estonia as part of Operation Cabrit, where the U.K. is leading a multinational battle group to deter Russian aggression in the Baltic states. They work alongside NATO allies from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.