FOUR people have been killed, including two young friends, in a weekend of tragedy on the region's roads.Two young men from Ipswich died when the car they were passengers in careered off the A12 near the Suffolk and Essex border at Holton St Mary.

FOUR people have been killed, including two young friends, in a weekend of tragedy on the region's roads.

Two young men from Ipswich died when the car they were passengers in careered off the A12 near the Suffolk and Essex border at Holton St Mary. No other vehicle was involved.

That happened in the early hours of Saturday, just a short time after another young man was killed when the car he was driving was in a collision with a mini-bus just north of Lowestoft.

The third fatal accident was late on Friday night, in which a man from the Haverhill area died when his Ford Fiesta left the A1092, between Clare and Cavendish, and overturned in a field.

All the tragedies happened during a five-hour period between 10.30pm on Friday night and 3am on Saturday morning.

Last night, the two men who died in the A12 accident were named as Daniel Prescott, 22, of Dombey Road, Ipswich, and Dwayne Hasnip, 19, of Allenby Road, Ipswich.

They were travelling in a black Volkswagen Golf which left the Ipswich-bound carriageway about half-a-mile from the B1070 East Bergholt junction shortly before 3am on Saturday.

The driver has been named as Marlon Daley, of Ipswich. The fourth occupant of the car has not been named. Neither received life-threatening injuries, according to police.

It is expected further details will be released about the accident today.

Polly Cowan, a control room supervisor with Suffolk police, said: "It appears the vehicle left the road and unfortunately two people died as a result of the accident. An investigation into the accident is under way. The injuries to the other men were not thought to be life threatening."

A spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Service said four ambulances and a medic from the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service were sent to the accident.

He said: "We were called to a single vehicle accident with four casualties at 2.49am. Two of the men had died and the other two were taken to Ipswich Hospital."

Fire crews from Ipswich, Colchester and Hadleigh also attended the accident. A spokeswoman for the Suffolk fire service said: "We were called at 2.55am. Two people were confirmed dead at the scene."

The man killed following a collision between a car and a mini-bus near the Norfolk/Suffolk border in the early hours of Saturday morning has still not been named.

The incident happened on the A143 near Haddiscoe at around 1am. The driver of the white Renault car, a young man believed to be from the Gorleston area, died at the scene of the accident. The driver of the white LDV mini-bus was unhurt.

Police, ambulance and fire crews were called to the accident, and the road was closed until 5.30am while investigations were carried out.

Anyone with any information about the collision is asked to contact PC Forbes Scott, of Central Area Policing on 01953 424242.