TWO men have been killed and a woman left seriously injured after a French-plated car fleeing police smashed head-on into a vehicle stopped at a red light in Barcelona.
The crash happened at around 9am on Sunday at the junction of Carrer Pallars and Carrer Fluvia in the Poblenou district, close to Avinguda Diagonal.
It began when staff at the Hilton hotel near Diagonal Mar called 112 after spotting a vehicle with French plates behaving suspiciously in the area.
Officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra attended but, as they approached, the driver accelerated and fled at high speed.
The Mossos lost sight of the car, but it kept going — driving in the wrong direction and mounting pavements at speed.
It reached the Pallars-Fluvia junction and struck a car carrying a couple head-on, destroying the fronts of both vehicles and overturning one.
Emergency crews from the Barcelona Fire Brigade and the Sistema d’Emergencies Mediques responded, cutting all three occupants free from the wreckage.
The driver of the fleeing car, a man of 25, went into cardiac arrest at the scene and could not be revived.
The driver of the stationary vehicle, aged 58, suffered a cardiac arrest and died despite the efforts of paramedics.
The 52-year-old woman travelling with him was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
According to initial reports, the driver of the fleeing car was suspected of being under the influence of drugs.
His vehicle was inspected for narcotics and other material that may have prompted the flight from police.
A Guardia Urbana dog trained to detect banknotes was also deployed to search the wrecked French car, according to reports.
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