Three killed in car crash

A woman gave birth hours after a car crash which killed her husband and two young sons yesterday. The couple's daughter was treated for head and pelvic injuries, but was last night said to be in a stable condition in hospital. The woman's baby, a boy weighing 10lb, was delivered by Caesarean section and was in the intensive care unit at Basildon Hospital in Essex. Police were questioning a 25-year-old man about the accident, which occurred when the family's car hit the tractor unit of an articulated lorry in Chadwell St Mary, Essex.

The man and two boys, aged two and four, were certified dead at the scene and the woman and girl were thrown from the car. A hospital spokeswoman said the baby was fine, the mother was in the hospital's intensive care unit, where she was "poorly but stable", and the little girl was stable. Kate Watson-Smyth