
Seven people, including two police officers, were killed in a car crash in northeast England on Saturday after a car travelling in the opposite direction on a main road collided with a police vehicle.
Cleveland Police said the incident happened at 3:39 a.m. near the South Bank area, east of Middlesbrough, and that all people in the two vehicles died at the scene, Reuters reports.
"This is an extremely sad day for Cleveland," said Cleveland Police Chief Victoria Fuller.
The police force said it had officially identified the occupants of the other vehicle, a Volkswagen Passat, and was contacting their families.
Fuller identified the two dead officers as Constables Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38, describing them as "brave officers who did not return home to their families at the end of their shift."
Premier Andy Burnham also released a brief statement, expressing his sadness over the incident.
After two recent crashes near Dublin, one of which left five people dead, Ireland's police chief warned this week that some young people were driving vehicles the wrong way on the motorway "for likes on social media".
An Irish parliamentary committee has asked short-form video platform TikTok to explain how it removes content “that appears to glorify dangerous and illegal behavior on our streets.” On Tuesday, Ireland’s media regulator made a similar request.