TWO women in their seventies died as their car burst into flames after a head-on crash last night.

Drivers arriving at the scene managed to push the two vehicles apart, stopping the flames spreading to the other car, in which were a mother and her two children, one a four-month-old baby.

They tried in vain to rescue the two elderly women but were beaten back by heat and flames.

Sgt Trevor Botting, Haywards Heath traffic officer, was one of the first at the scene. He said: "It was horrible, a terrible tragedy.

"Members of the public tried to help the victims and they should be thanked for their assistance."

The accident happened on the A26 at Eridge Green near Crowborough, shortly after 5pm. Police closed the road for three hours while fire and ambulance crews tended the casualties and cleared the wreckage.

The two women who died were 74 and 76 and came from Hampshire. They were driving a Renault 19 Cabriolet, which was travelling north at the time of the accident.

Police said they would be using dental records for a formal identification.

The other vehicle, a Vauxhall Frontera, was driven by Joanne Stonebrook, 34, of Forge Rise, Uckfield.

She suffered a suspected broken ankle and was taken with her sons to the Kent and Sussex Hospital at Tunbridge Wells.

Nicholas, ten, sustained a fractured shoulder and four-month-old Callum was treated for shock.

Mrs Stonebrook and her husband Kelvin run Protech Photo Repairs in Uckfield.

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