Five people were killed today when a car being pursued by police drove in the wrong direction on to the M4 motorway and crashed headlong into an oncoming vehicle.

An official inquiry has been opened into the police's role in the fatal collision, which took place near Newport, South Wales, in the early hours of this morning.

The crash occurred after a car with four male occupants was chased on to the motorway by police, and proceeded to drive against the traffic flow, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said.

The police abandoned their pursuit of the vehicle, which crashed into another car at high speed after travelling along the motorway for a mile and a half, the IPCC reported, while announcing that it had been asked by Gwent Police to investigate the incident.

The collision between the two cars – a red Ford Mondeo and a red Volvo 940 – occurred at about 3.15am, between junctions 25 and 25A on the eastbound carriageway of the M4 in the Newport area.

Three young men from one car and a couple from the other were pronounced dead at the scene. An 18-year-old man was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport with multiple limb fractures.

Superintendent Roger Morgan of Gwent Police said that two officers had identified the vehicle on the A48 after responding to a call about suspicious activity in the Penhow area of Newport. After the driver failed to stop when ordered, a short pursuit ensued, which ended when the car drove the wrong way down a slip road into the motorway. Soon after the force was alerted to the crash.

Morgan insisted the officers had “behaved properly in the circumstances,” saying they would have broken procedure had they pursued the car onto the motorway.

Wreckage remained strewn across the carriageway at midday today as police investigators tried to salvage evidence from the scene, which local residents described as horrific.

The engine compartment of the Volvo disintegrated on impact, leaving only the rear half of the body intact. The Ford Mondeo was also rendered little more than a shell by the collision, which residents of nearby houses said was so loud that it woke them with a start.

An ambulance attended the scene within five minutes, the Welsh Ambulance Service said, but efforts to resuscitate those most seriously injured failed.

Tom Davies, IPCC Commissioner, said: “It has emerged that at around 3am this morning a marked police vehicle had reason to try and stop a car containing four male occupants.

“Early indications are that the vehicle being pursued took a turn on to the motorway in the wrong direction. The police vehicle did not follow it. Some one and a half miles down the motorway, the fatal collision occurred."

Both Gwent Police and South Wales Police road traffic investigators were co-operating with the IPCC team, which had been at the site since the early hours of the morning, he added.

Commuters were hit by travel disruption after the motorway was closed in both directions to allow investigators to examine the scene of the crash. The closure – from junctions 24 to 28 – caused lengthy tailbacks in and around Newport during the morning rush hour. The westbound carriageway was reopened at midday, although motorists were advised to continue avoiding the motorway and seek alternate routes until further notice.

The IPCC is expected to release details of those killed once their families have been informed.

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