At least six people have been killed and many seriously injured following a series of car crashes over the Christmas period.

Newlyweds Christopher Mallet, 46, and Ann, 41, died when a BMW collided with their car in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, on Christmas Day.

A 28-year-old woman from Hampshire died after she was dragged for a mile after being hit by a car in Crewkerne, Somerset, on Boxing Day.

And six-year-old Declan Murphy is fighting for his life in intensive care after the driver of a car which was in collision with his parents' vehicle ran away from the accident.

Secretly married

Police said that Christopher and Ann Mallet's car was hit by a gold BMW which they had earlier tried to stop when they saw it being driven without lights.

The Mallet's car was hit by a gold BMW

The driver of the BMW, a Polish man who has not yet been named, was also killed.

Mr and Mrs Mallet, who had secretly married in Gretna Green six weeks ago, died in separate hospitals.

Mr Mallet's sons Darryl and Karl described him as a "true romantic" and "the best dad in the world".

Darryl, 21, said: "When he died he was the happiest I had ever seen him."

Mrs Mallet's brother Nick Cawthorne, 39, said her two daughters and her new husband were the most important thing in her life.

He said: "She was thought very highly of by people that knew her and she will be sadly missed."

Wrong way

Police in Somerset are trying to trace the driver of a silver-coloured saloon following the death of the 28-year-old woman.

Declan Murphy, six, is fighting for his life

She was hit by a car in the West Street area of Crewkerne and dragged along a country road for a mile.

Emergency services found her lying near a pub in the village of Roundham.

On the M1 pensioner Leonard Sanderson, 69, died after he drove the wrong way down the motorway near the Watford Gap services in the early hours of Christmas Eve

Mr Sanderson, from Bristol, hit another vehicle, whose driver Safdar Ali, 50, was also killed.

Road rage

In Cheshire police are looking for the driver who left schoolboy Declan Murphy in hospital.

His parents' car was hit near their home in Runcorn, Cheshire, at 3.15pm on Christmas Day.

The driver of the green Renault Laguna, who fled the scene of the accident on foot, is said to be between 17 and 20-years-old.

Declan is still seriously ill and his mother and father also needed hospital treatment.

A road rage attack in Hartlepool, Cleveland, left a motorist permanently blind in one eye.

The man was hit across the face with an unknown weapon after becoming involved in an argument with another driver.