BERLIN (Reuters) - A pair of flying underpants have caused a crash on a German highway after they landed on a driver`s face and blocked his view, police have said.

A police spokesman in the central town of Gotha said one of a group of naked men in a van threw the underwear into a Volkswagen Passat as they passed it on a busy stretch of one of Germany`s notoriously speedy autobahns.

"The underpants landed on the driver`s face, causing him to ram the truck ahead from behind," said the spokesman, adding that he did not know why the men were driving along naked.

No one was hurt in the crash, but police are hunting the owner of the underpants for failing to stop at the scene.