Holiday boy killed in coach carnage

A 10-year-old British boy was killed when a pick-up truck ploughed into holidaymakers leaving a coach after a night-out.

A teenage girl and a nine-year-old boy were fighting for their lives today. Thirty British tourists on the coach watched in horror as the truck smashed into an oncoming sports car and then a bus before swerving into the children.

First reports suggested the coach carrying the British tour party had been illegally parked at the side of a highway near the resort of Malia on Crete. Police sources said the driver of the pick-up was drunk.

The dead boy was named as Paul Amar and the critically ill nineyearold was identified as Nicholas Ponja. It is thought the boys may have been related. Their parents and the family of the girl were on board the coach. Police said she was aged "about 15 or 16".

A further three Britons were seriously injured, among them 27-year-old Dean Ferrar, as they walked across the highway to their hotel shortly after midnight today.

Local police officer Nikos Kasapakis said: "It was a scene of mayhem. The bodies of children were lying in the road with adults by them screaming for help. The drivers were shouting at each other about who was responsible."

Yannis Kanavakis, the director of Heraklion University hospital, said the teenage girl was in the intensive care unit. "Her injuries are very severe and she is fighting for her life. Three British men are being treated for serious injuries, but are stable."

The drivers of three of the vehicles were arrested on preliminary charges of responsibility for the crash and will appear in court today. Police are hunting the driver of the fourth vehicle.