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Two police officers killed in a crash on the A66 died from head and neck injuries, an inquest has provisionally concluded.

Cleveland Police officers PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, died on Saturday when their police vehicle was hit by a Volkswagen Passat which was going the wrong way down the dual carriageway near Middlesbrough.

Further inquests, into the deaths of the five young men in the VW Passat, are expected to open later.

Appleton said both officers died in a fatal road traffic collision on the A66 between Normanby Road and Church Lane in Eston, after their vehicle was in collision with a Volkswagen Passat that was driven "against the flow of traffic".

He said there had been an "aborted" police pursuit, which both officers were "not directly involved in".

It was told PC Blades was identified by his wife and PC Clough by his partner.

The coroner said he was waiting on a report on the full post-mortem examinations into the men's deaths, a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and a police collision report.

A fundraising appeal set up by the Cleveland Police Federation for the two officers' families has raised more than £1m.

Floral tributes have continued to be left near the crash site, while a minute's silence was held at Cleveland Police's headquarters earlier to remember the officers.

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