Two women killed in car crash

The accident happened just outside the city of Durham

Two women died and a man suffered serious injuries after the people carrier and car they were travelling in collided.

Karen Toolan, 37, and Dorothy Daly, 70, both from Liverpool, were killed in the crash, outside the Ramside Hall Hotel in Durham on Saturday evening.

The accident happened as a Vauxhall Zafira carrying five people collided with a Ford Focus as it crossed a busy dual carriageway at about 1900 GMT.

One of the women in the Vauxhall died at the scene, the second died later in hospital. The 19-year-old driver of the Ford suffered serious spinal injuries.

The two women were visiting their former parish priest who used to work in Broadgreen, Liverpool.

Father Peter Gillespie, 38, of Ushaw Moor, County Durham, was driving the people carrier - he suffered chest injuries.

The people carrier's other occupants - two women aged 31 and 59, also from Liverpool - were treated in University Hospital North Durham for non life-threatening injuries.

Two passengers in the Ford Focus, aged 20 and 21, from Durham and West Rainton, were also injured.