Six people have been killed in a crash between a car and lorry.

Police said the accident happened on the A607 near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

The lorry driver, a 48-year-old man from Melton Mowbray, was arrested in connection with the incident but later released without further action and taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary for treatment.

The six people who died were all travelling in a black Ford Mondeo.

The driver was a 23-year-old man from Leicestershire, police said. The passengers were an 18-year-old man, a 19-year-old woman, an 18-year-old woman and a man and a woman whose ages are not yet known.

Police set up a cordon either side of the collision scene, causing delays to traffic on the Leicester to Melton-Mowbray route.

The crash happened in countryside near the villages of Kirby Bellars and Eye Kettleby.

Sergeant Simon Adkin, of Leicestershire Police, said: "The investigation is in its very early stages but it appears that the vehicles collided head-on.

"We are still going through the process of establishing the identifications of the deceased but I do believe they are all from the Leicester area.

"The scene is still secure and collision investigators are down at the scene trying to establish the cause and the circumstances leading up to it.

"The lorry driver is now being treated as a significant witness. We need to trace any other potential witnesses who were travelling along the A607 at the time."

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