THREE young men died and a fourth was seriously injured when a stolen car being driven at high speed crashed on a motorway slip-road while being followed by police early today.

The teenage driver and two passengers died instantly when their stolen Metro hit a lamp-post on an exit road of the M66, near Bury, at 2.45am, said a Greater Manchester Police spokesman.

A police patrol spotted the four young men on the A56 at Whitefield and followed their car on to the M62 at Junction 17, he said.

When they saw the police car the youths drove off "at speed" followed some distance behind by the patrol car.

The car, a Rover saloon stolen earlier from Rochdale, then joined the M66 and headed north.

But the driver, a 19-year-old from Salford, lost control on the exit road to Prestwich and careered into a lamp-post on the nearside verge.

Paramedic crews found the driver and two of the passengers, a 16-year-old youth and a 21-year-old man from Rochdale, dead at the scene.

The third passenger, a 22-year-old man from Rochdale, was taken to Bury General hospital with multiple injuries. He was believed to be in serious but stable condition.

Details of the dead or injured were not being released until relatives had been informed, said the police spokesman. Witnesses are asked to contact police.

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