Five people, including two boys, have been killed in a crash on the M6, after reports of a car travelling the wrong way down the motorway.
The two-car collision involved a Toyota and a Skoda and happened on the northbound motorway, past Tebay services in Cumbria, at 4.04pm on Tuesday.
Cumbria Constabulary said officers received a report of a Skoda travelling southbound on the northbound carriageway.
Emergency crews were en route when the force received further calls it had been involved in a head-on collision with a Toyota.
Four people - a 42-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman and two boys aged 15 and seven from Glasgow - who were travelling in the Toyota, were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Skoda driver, a 40-year-old man from Cambridgeshire, also died in the crash.
Police said a third boy in the Toyota, aged seven and also from Glasgow, was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle where he remains in a serious condition.
The force said formal identification of those involved is yet to take place.
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Four fire engines from nearby Penrith, Kendal and Shap were mobilised after the alarm was raised, and fire crews remained at the scene for several hours.
Driver Chris Isles, 58, captured a picture near to the scene after getting held up in the traffic tailback and at first thought it was a vehicle fire.
Mr Isles, from Kirkoswald, said: "It's terrible. It never crossed my mind that there would have been five people killed. It's awful."
A stretch of the M6 northbound between J36 and J39 was closed following the crash but reopened fully in the early hours of Wednesday.
A Cumbria Constabulary spokesperson said: "The families of those involved are being supported by specially trained officers.
"Officers would like to thank members of the public that assisted at the scene and those affected by the collision for their patience.
"We would also like to thank those that have already been in touch who witnessed or have dashcam of the incident. We continue the appeal to anyone with information or with dashcam to contact us."
(c) Sky News 2024: Two children among five dead in M6 crash
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