M6: Five people - including two children - killed in Cumbria crash

Five people - including two children - have died in a crash on the M6 in Cumbria.

Two cars collided on the northbound carriageway, just past Tebay Services at around 4pm on Tuesday afternoon (15th October).

The collision involved two vehicles – a Skoda and a Toyota.

The driver of the Skoda, a man from Cambridgeshire was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The driver a man and a woman and two children of the Toyota from Glasgow were also pronounced deceased at the scene.

A third child in the Toyota was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle with serious injuries.

The families of those involved are being supported by specially trained officers.

The M6 Northbound full reopened in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday, 16th October).

Police are appealing for for witnesses and information.

"Really shocked"

Four fire engines from nearby Penrith, Kendal and Shap were mobilised, and fire crews remained at the scene for several hours.

Local resident, Chris Isles, said he was around "50 yards" away from the accident on Tuesday and saw black smoke and flames.

The 58-year-old from Kirkoswald near Penrith in Cumbria told the PA news agency: "From where I was, 50 yards further back, it just seemed like a vehicle fire.

"I was parked up and I could see the smoke. It hadn't really happened that long. I literally must have been two minutes behind it happening.

"I got out of my (campervan) and just looked down the line and between the lines of vehicles in front of me, I could see there was quite a big fire that started.

"This was at 10 past four. Less than 20 minutes later the air ambulance was there."

Mr Isles, who captured a photo of smoke billowing into the sky, was driving home and was expected to take only seven minutes to drive from junction 38 to 39, but said he was stuck in "standstill" traffic for around three and a half hours.

"I was up near the front. They seemed to have turned everybody back from the back of the queue forward," said Mr Isles, who is a publican.

"So where we were, we were probably some of the last people to get off. It was about half past seven when we eventually got moved."

He said he feels "really shocked" at the incident and is "thinking of the family of everybody".

"It's terrible. It never crossed my mind that there would have been five people killed. It's awful," he said.

Photographs on social media showed a plume of black smoke rising into the sky above the motorway at the site of the crash.

The images also showed the tailbacks created by the incident, with traffic backed up across all three lanes of the motorway.

Anyone with information relating to this incident can report online at www.cumbria.police.uk/report-it, quoting incident number 146 of October 15, or call on 101.

Alternatively, reports can be made via contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

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