An Essex MP said "his heart goes out" to friends and family of the two people who died in a crash on the A12 near Colchester earlier this week.

Emergency services, including two air ambulances, were called after a car left the northbound carriageway between Stanway and Marks Tey and hit a tree at around 12.45pm on Monday, November 8.

The northbound lanes of the road remained closed for around eight hours while fire crews worked to free two people from the vehicle and police officers investigated the crash.

Yesterday Essex Police confirmed that a man and a woman had died, and two other people were seriously injured as a result of the accident.

Will Quince, Colchester MP, said he had been shocked by the crash.

He said: "My heart goes out to the two people who tragically lost their lives and to all of their friends and family. I also send my very best wishes for a speedy recovery to the two who were injured and survived the crash.

"And I'd like to pay tribute to all of the emergency services who do such amazing work for us. They do encounter what must be terrible, tragic scenes like this. It reminds us of what they do on our behalf."

Mr Quince said it was likely too early to say whether any lessons could be learnt to prevent further tragedies in the future, but he added: "I'm sure the police and others will be keen to hear from anyone that witnessed the incident so they can piece together what happened and how and why."

Adam Pipe, head of roads policing at Essex Police, thanked motorists for their patience in the wake of the incident.

He said: “Our officers worked hard to turn vehicles around to free the traffic caught up in this incident.

“I want to thank the patience and understanding of everyone stuck in traffic."

He added: “We need anyone who saw what happened or has any dashcam footage to contact us.”

Essex Police can be contacted on 101 and anyone with any information on the crash should quote incident 479 of November 8.