A man and a woman have died and four people were injured in a seven-vehicle collision on the M5 in Somerset.
Emergency services were called to the scene near junction 24 at Huntworth just after 8.30am on Thursday.
The collision on the southbound carriageway involved a lorry and six cars.
The female driver of one car and the male passenger of another car were pronounced dead at the scene, a police spokesman said.
A woman from each of those vehicles was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol with serious injuries.
Two other victims of the crash, who are not believed to have life-threatening injuries, were taken to Musgrove Park Hospital.
Another person was treated at the scene and later released.
Pictures from the crash site showed emergency workers next to a badly crushed blue car.
Inspector Frazer Davey said: I’d like to thank people for their patience while the emergency teams are working at the scene and as the vehicles are being recovered.
While I appreciate how disruptive the road closure is I’m sure people will understand our need to carry out a thorough investigation to establish exactly how this happened.
The M5 was closed in both directions between junction 24 and junction 25 after the crash.
The northbound carriageway re-opened at around 12pm.
The southbound carriageway remains closed while emergency services carry out an examination of the scene and recover vehicles.