A four-year-old boy and a man are in intensive care following a horrific road smash which left six people injured.

The accident happened when a blue Mercedes saloon and a cream Ford Escort were in collision on the A120 roundabout in Ramsey.

After the crash, one of the victims left the hospital barefoot and bare-chested, still covered in blood. He was later found at his home address in Lawford.

Emergency teams rushed to the scene of the accident at 1.45pm on Wednesday, including four ambulance crews, Essex Air Ambulance, firefighters, police, an emergency accident GP and an ambulance supervisor.

Firefighters cut some of the casualties free from the wreckage which had come to rest near the centre of the roundabout. The Ford Escort had completely overturned.

There were five people travelling in the Escort and one person in the Mercedes.

A woman with serious chest injuries was flown to Colchester General Hospital by air ambulance and three men and the boy were taken there by road ambulance.

Another woman was taken to Harwich Hospital with minor injuries.

The four-year-old child was yesterday (Thursday) said to be in a serious condition in Colchester General Hospital's intensive care department.

A man, with head injuries, was also in a serious but stable condition in intensive care.

Another man suffered serious head injuries and staff were considering transferring him for specialist treatment elsewhere.

Paramedics and staff dealing with the incident were debriefed and given counselling when they returned to their stations.

A spokesperson for Essex Ambulance Service said: "This has been one of the more horrific road traffic accidents which has happened recently."

The A120 was closed in both Parkeston and Colchester-bound directions for four hours and traffic was routed through Dovercourt.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of driving with excess alcohol. He was later released on bail.

Horrific - emergency service personnel survey the crash scene

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.