Staffordshire Police have issued a statement after two police officers were killed in a crash near Middlesbrough.

PC Tom Clough, 38 and PC Matthew Blades, 37, died on Saturday (22 August) after a Volkswagen Passat, which was travelling the wrong way down the A66, collided with the officers' marked armed response car.

The marked armed response car was travelling on the correct side of the road.

Five people travelling in the Volkswagen Passat were also killed.

They have been named by Cleveland Police as Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Michael Robert Cahill, 23.

Officers had been pursuing the Volkswagen Passat just moments before the crash.

According to The Independent Office for Police Conduct: "Analysis of the police vehicle in car footage shows the pursuit lasted just under seven minutes before the Passat travelled onto the A66 in South Bank, against the flow of traffic, at which point the pursuit was aborted by officers and they continued to travel on the correct side of the carriageway.

"A short time after the pursuit ended, approximately 10 seconds later, the Passat collided with another police vehicle [PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades' vehicle] which was not involved in the pursuit but in the area to assist in a search for the Passat believed to be using cloned plates that had activated an ANPR camera."

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Staffordshire Police issued the following statement on their Facebook page on Sunday (23 August): "Our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragic incident in Cleveland yesterday (Saturday 22 August).

"The colleagues of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough along with all at Cleveland Police are in our thoughts at this devastating time.

"We know that the loss of these courageous officers is felt across the policing family nationally."