Can we ever really understand Chernobyl? As a researcher in visual culture, I find myself returning to this question again and again as I examine films, TV shows, documentaries, visual novels and artworks.

We know that the explosion occurred on April 26 1986 at 1:23am due to a safety test gone wrong, and that the radioactive contamination spread across the exclusion zone and far beyond, reaching other parts of Europe. Beyond these facts, however, things get shaky. Although the official death toll was, according to the World Health Organization’s 2005 report, less than 50, the real number is considered to be much higher, with thousands affected by the long-term consequences of exposure.

Radioactive contamination is what made this technological disaster so extraordinary. While many people may not be interested in decay chains or wavelengths, popular culture renders radioactive pollution immediately legible.

At the same time, these representations often operate in the space between historical fact and dramatisation. Although many can be criticised for exaggerating an already fantastical disaster, that dramatisation is also part of what keeps audiences engaged and ensures that Chernobyl remains alive in our cultural awareness.

Here are five of my favourite pop culture depictions of the Chernobyl disaster, that I believe give a pretty good glimpse of what the disaster entailed.

1. Chernobyl (2019)

This series is one of the best ways to understand or be introduced to Chernobyl. Over the course of five episodes, HBO’s drama series brought viewers through the social, political and bureaucratic aspects of the disaster.

Following the scientist Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), as well as the story of firefighter’s wife Lyudmilla Ignatenko (Jessie Buckley), the series does a great job at narrating the disaster in compelling ways. It is visually well constructed with attention to every minor detail.

The series finds ingenious ways to visualise invisible radiation, while scientists’ struggle to force the truth into the open is heart-wrenching enough to hold the viewer through all five episodes.

2. Chernobylite (2021)

The horror indie video game Chernobylite allows players to wander freely around Chernobyl’s exclusion zone – one of the most radioactively contaminated areas on Earth.

With time and climate change, the structures and buildings within the zone are at increasing risk of disappearing from both wildfires or age that leaves buildings crumbling. In an effort to preserve the zone, the creators of Chernobylite began to 3D scan it. Left with a virtual map, they decided to turn their project into a video game.

In Chernobylite, players can roam freely and uncover the mystery of the zone. Although embellished with green glowing crystals and monsters, the game does offer a setting that allows you to walk around and experience the zone while scientists tell you information about the disaster.

This game is a wonderful way to experience the zone at a distance. It is photo-realistic and allows the players to really locate some of the famous landmarks of the zone (such as the Ferris wheel or the monument for the firefighters).

3. Chernobyl Abyss (2021)

This Russian disaster film follows fictional firefighter, Alexey Karpushin (Danila Kozlovsky) through some of the challenges in the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

To save his son from radiation poisoning, Karpushin agrees to become a “liquidator” in exchange for having him sent to a care facility in Switzerland. Around 600,000 military personnel were drafted as liquidators – sent to high-radiation zones (often wearing inadequate protection) to clear radioactive debris and manage contaminated waste.

While it’s not a perfect film, it gives a good impression of the emotional and individual toll of the disaster.

4. The Babushkas of Chernobyl (2015)

Amid the tragic and often action-driven representations of Chernobyl, this documentary feels hopeful rather than bleak. It portrays life in the exclusion zone (some people have returned to live on their generational land) in all its complexity.

More importantly, it’s a reminder that while the zone may be reduced to a story for those of us watching from afar, for the people who live there, it remains a home.

5. YouTube

Before the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022, the zone was frequently visited. In fact, after the release of HBO’s Chernobyl series, tourism allegedly increased by 40%.

In a space where souvenirs like a stone from the ground are illegal to pick up, many instead captured the zone through their camera lens. Viewing videos from tourists and “stalkers” (illegal explorers) on YouTube, offers one of the best ways to gain insights into how the Chernobyl disaster has affected the land.

Many of these tourists capture the samoesely (resettlers), wildlife and guides who talk about the zone and what the disaster means to them.

It comes after the EU has issued a warning that passengers face a ‘very serious crisis’

Airlines have announced they are cancelling and cutting back flights to and from the UK amidst massive rises in jet fuel costs and fears over shortages. The BBC has reported that 6 carriers so far which fly to the UK have said they’re going to operate fewer flights.

It comes after the EU has issued a warning that Europe faces a “very serious crisis” as aviation fuel supplies begin to dwindle due to the conflict in Iran, and holidaymakers may need to alter their summer travel plans.

“Unfortunately, it’s very likely that many people’s holidays will be affected, either by flight cancellations or very, very expensive tickets,” Dan Jorgensen, the EU energy commissioner, told Sky News. “Even if we do everything we can do, if the jet fuel is not there, then it’s not there.”

Jorgensen added: “[Currently] it is primarily a crisis of prices and not yet a crisis of supply, but unfortunately we cannot be sure to prevent a crisis of supply, especially on jet fuel in the future, if the crisis continues.”

The International Energy Agency has cautioned that significant supply problems could emerge within the next five to six weeks. Airlines are already implementing measures to curb demand: the Lufthansa Group, among Europe’s largest airline operators, has confirmed the scrapping of 20,000 flights over the coming months. Meanwhile, other carriers are hiking ticket prices on long-distance routes to offset rising fuel costs.

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The price of flights has been rising since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, a worry for anyone planning a summer holiday.

Which airlines are cancelling flights?

Airlines that serve the UK which plan to operate fewer flights.

• KLM
• Air Canada
• Asiana Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Lufthansa
• SAS

The following companies have said they don’t plan to change their schedules:

• British Airways owner IAG
• EasyJet
• Jet2Holidays

Flight prices

While some airlines have cut back on the number of flights to save money, others have said they will start charging more per passenger or will put up charges for luggage.

These include:

• Air France-KLM
• Indigo
• Pakistan International Airlines
• Thai Airways
• Turkish Airlines-Sun Express
• Virgin Atlantic

Rory Boland, travel editor at consumer publication Which?, says overall cancellations will be a very small proportion of the millions of flights in and out of the UK, and the changes will be targeted on routes where there are multiple flights a day so that passengers can be rebooked on to an earlier or later flight. Low-cost Spanish regional airline Volotea has come under fire for saying it will add a surcharge to tickets it has already sold and is being challenged by local consumer rights groups.

Holiday giant Tui said the Iran war cost it around 40 million euros (£34.8 million) last month after it was forced to repatriate thousands of holidaymakers and staff.

READ MORE: Spain takes action at 24 airports to tackle border control chaos and ease queues – full list

Europe’s largest travel operator cut its profit forecast and suspended revenue guidance as a result, sending it shares lower.

The company is among travel firms to have been significantly disrupted by the conflict in the Middle East, which began at the end of February. It is also among airline firms to face pressure from a surge in jet fuel prices after the conflict pushed up the price of oil.

On Wednesday, Tui told shareholders that it had to absorb 40 million euros worth of costs in March due to “repatriation efforts and related operational disruptions”.

Following the start of the war, Tui repatriated around 5,000 passengers from two cruise ships anchored in ports in Abu Dhabi.A lot of the industry’s jet fuel supplies come from the Gulf region, and most of it passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has effectively been closed to shipping since the start of March.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Businesses have doled out up as much as $4 million to move boats through the Panama Canal with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, according to the Panama Canal Authority, in a move that has created a seismic shift in global trade flows.

While passage through the waterway usually comes at a flat rate via reservations, companies without reservations can cross by paying an additional fee in an auction for slots, which are awarded to the highest bidder rather than waiting for days off the coast of Panama City.

That price has ballooned in recent weeks as Iran and the United States have bottlenecked the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, and demand for those slots has skyrocketed. Ships have increasingly traveled through the Panama Canal as shipments are rerouted and buyers purchase from other countries to avoid commerce through now-treacherous Middle Eastern waterway.

“With all the bombings, the missiles, the drones … companies are saying it’s safer and less expensive to cross through the Panama Canal,” said Rodrigo Noriega, said lawyer and analyst in Panama City. “All of this is affecting global supply chains.”

Meanwhile, Noriega said Panama’s government is “maximizing what it can earn from the Panama Canal.”

The average price to cross through the canal ranges between $300,000 and $400,000 depending on the vessel. Previously, to get an earlier crossing, businesses would pay an additional $250,000 to $300,000. In recent weeks, the average additional cost has jumped to around $425,000.

Ricaurte Vásquez, the canal’s administrator, said another company that he would not name paid an extra $4 million when its fuel vessel had to change its destination because of ongoing geopolitical tensions.

“It was a ship carrying fuel to Europe, and they redirected it to Singapore, and it needed to get there because Singapore is running out of fuel,” he said.

Other oil companies paid an excess of $3 million in addition to the crossing fee to accelerate their passage in the face of soaring oil prices.

Vásquez said that ships have not piled up at the canal, but rather the costs can be attributed to last-minute shifts and greater urgency by vessels needing to get from one point to another faster in the wake of larger trade chaos.

Vásquez emphasized that the costs were not a blanket market rate, but rather a temporary toll shouldered by companies.

“They decide how high a price to go,” Vásquez said.

At the same time it’s earning more money from the new business, Panama’s government has also been dealt a blow by the geopolitical struggle.

On Wednesday, the country’s foreign ministry accused Iran of illegally seizing a Panama-flagged vessel from the Italian company, MSC Francesca, in the Strait of Hormuz.

Panama, a country with one of the world’s largest ship registries, said the ship was “forcibly taken” by Iran. It wasn’t immediately clear if the boat remained in Iranian custody.

“This represents a serious attack on maritime security and constitute an unnecessary escalation at a time when the international community is advocating for the Strait of Hormuz to remain open to international navigation without threats or coercion of any kind,” it said.

Noriega, the analyst, said that the amount companies are paying to cross the Panama Canal may only go up if the conflict continues to stretch on, as oil prices are already skyrocketing. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly jumped above $107 this week, soaring from around $66 a barrel a year ago.

“No one really foresaw the potential effects (the war) would have on global trade,” Noriega said.

Neil Donaldson, commercial director of growers Hall Hunter, which has farms near Wokingham and Wargrave in Berkshire and Godalming in Surrey, said: “Cool nights and warm sunny days create the perfect conditions for growing sweet, full-flavoured strawberries — and that’s exactly what this weekend’s forecast is bringing.

Footage appears to show an Albanian gang clad in balaclavas filming themselves on TikTok raiding a cannabis ‘crop house’.

The chilling post shows masked men using infrared scanners on normal suburban streets to locate the heat from cannabis grow lamps. Once they have found a target, they make their way inside.

They pose for the camera with a violent trap song accompanying the footage with ‘f*** you’ written as a caption as the gang appear to rob the house.

The clip shows a bewildered-looking man in shorts and a T-shirt who apparently lives or works in the house being intimidated by the gang. The camera focuses on the raiders clutching cannabis plants.

The ‘crop houses’ are kitted out with high-tech lighting and heating to aid the growth of the plants in what can be a highly lucrative business.

The shocking footage is one of a series of videos featuring the men in what seems to be a celebration of their criminal lifestyle. The house, allegedly a ‘crop house’ in which cannabis is grown on an industrial scale, features several times on the account.

The property, which looks like an ordinary suburban house, cannot be identified.

The video is believed to have been shot in West Yorkshire, according to the online footprint of the account holder who posted the clip.

Other footage posted on the same TikTok account shows a masked member of the ‘gang’ climbing up the side of a house before clambering through an open window.

Another shows an apparent reconnaissance mission in which the gang hide and watch a crop house.

Some of the footage is tagged with Albanian flags and accompanied by slogans in Albanian.

The rap themes are charged with violence and knives are mentioned. But no weapons are featured in the clips.

In one of the films the ‘gang’ members are seen holed up in what appears to be a safe house.

The latest ‘crop house’ footage is chillingly similar to that posted by another Albanian ‘crew’ this time in east London.

In Barking, a heavily armed Albanian gang called the Hellbanianz filmed themselves brandishing weapons while flaunting cash, Rolexes while driving Ferraris.

They ran the Gascoigne estate where their ‘soldiers’ lived. Their brash online posts eventually led the police to the door and some members have been convicted.

Meanwhile the Metro exposed a criminal network operating in Southgate, north London, where people trafficking and drug deals are bringing in huge sums.

An Albanian gang with its centre of operations around Southgate station has a ‘vice-like’ grip on the area, according to local security sources.

Such is the prevalence of the crew that the area around the station is known to locals as ‘Little Tirana’ after the Albanian capital.

A source told Metro: ‘We call it little Tirana around here. The Albanian gangs have a grip on the community and there is a lot of fear about being taken out [killed]. They have taken over some of the businesses and have threatened others.

‘There have been connections with people trafficking, protection rackets and drug dealing. It’s their turf for sure and they hide in plain sight.They have taken over some of the businesses and have threatened others.

 ‘There have been connections with people trafficking, protection rackets and drug dealing. It’s their turf for sure and they hide in plain sight. We know who they are and where they operate out of. It has been reported to the police they need to get a grip of this.’

Other areas of the capital have also seen the rise of Albanian gangs.

When raiders stormed an Albanian cannabis factory to steal the product their machetes and knives proved no match for the handguns the Albanians pulled to defend their territory.

A court heard that the robbers who were trying to steal from the factory in Croydon had ‘brought knives to a gunfight’.

The Shqiptare is the term used by the National Crime Agency to describe the Albanian crime syndicates.

They sell huge amount of cocaine smuggled into into the UK via Latin America.

It is believed they run a majority of the estimated £5bn cocaine market. They are buying for up to £5,000 a kilo according to police estimates. They started selling for less profit than their rivals to corner the market.

The supply of cocaine and other drugs on an industrial scale has provided the Albanian mob with funds to almost ‘buy up’ communities.

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Taken just before 4pm on Monday, April 20, the driver stops at a red light and a pedestrian starts to cross Trinity Street.

But, moments after – a car crashes with a white Mercedes which pushes it towards the pedestrian island as a woman crossing stops and quickly rushes back across the road.

The Mercedes crashes through the pedestrian signal light and the traffic light before coming to a stop on the road located between Aldi and Bolton One.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that a fire engine attended the scene shortly after the crash – which involved seven vehicles.

A spokesperson said: “Just after 4pm on Monday 20 April, one fire engine from Bolton Central attended a crash involving seven vehicles on Trinity Street, Bolton.

“Firefighters assisted North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Police to help make the surrounding area safe and were in attendance for around half an hour.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said there were no crimes recorded and only minor injuries in the crash.

Britain should consider rejoining the European Union after none of the Leave campaign’s “heady promises” materialised, the man who led the country’s departure from the bloc has said.

Philip Rycroft, former permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union, said there needs to be a “clear-headed appraisal of what is in the country’s best interests” and that life outside the EU had not lived up to lofty expectations.

Writing in The Times, he warned the road back into the bloc would be “long and windy”, but that the “argument is there to be won”.

The unusual intervention comes after Sir Keir Starmer said the UK would not cross the “red lines” of rejoining the single market or customs union.

But the newspaper reports several senior figures in government are pressing for the policy to be reviewed ahead of the next general election.

Mr Rycroft cited figures from recent YouGov polling for the campaign group Best for Britain, which shows that 53 per cent of people are now in favour of rejoining the EU, while 32 per cent are opposed and 14 per cent don’t know.

“Most economic analysis suggests that we have taken a significant hit to GDP as a result of leaving the single market,” he added.

“The precise number, and the impact on our export performance to the EU and beyond, might be subject to debate, but no one can credibly claim that we have marched to the sunny uplands of sustained economic growth as a consequence of Brexit.”

He said it was “not hard to see” why people may be “falling out of love” with Brexit.

“We are seemingly no nearer achieving an immigration policy that commands general consent,” he continued, in reference to the Leave campaign’s promise that leaving the bloc would allow the UK to take back control of its borders.

Last month, European affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told The Independent “there is no appetite” to return to the debates of the past over EU membership.

While he insists that the government wants to develop closer ties with the EU, particularly as the world becomes a more dangerous place, Mr Thomas-Symonds ruled out any sort of deal that would lead to the UK and the EU entering a customs union.

He said that even a bespoke version, like the agreements the bloc has with countries like Turkey and Norway, is off the cards.

The Coronation Street icon has been undergoing treatment for cancer while being seen leaving the ITV show on medical grounds

Beverley Callard has told fans she has been forced to miss the I’m A Celebrity… South Africa final on medical advice after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

Ahead of Tuesday’s (April 21) episode of the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here spin-off, it was confirmed that a campmate had to leave the South African savanna unexpectedly on medical grounds before it was revealed that former Coronation Street star Beverley Callard was the one who informed her campmates that she was unable to stay in the competition.

She was seen gathering her fellow campmates, Beverley was seen telling them on the ITV show: “I didn’t feel very well this morning… and the medics have advised I can’t return to camp. I’ve got to go home.” With tears in her eyes she added: “I don’t want to go. I’m absolutely gutted. I wanted to finish.”

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Following the episode, Beverley, who is famed for playing Liz McDonald in ITV’s Corrie, and first took part in I’m A Celeb back in 2020 when the programme was relocated to a Welsh castle, took to Instagram to share a video message with her followers. In it, she said: “Well, I’ve just watched by exit on I’m A Celeb and it made me cry all over again. Of course, I didn’t know then that I had cancer but I just knew that it was the last couple of days there that I hadn’t felt very well.

“What happened was, I went into the Bush Telegraph and apparently, I lost consciousness for a little while. I just wasn’t feeling myself. They took me to a medical hut and they were amazing; they really looked after me and they said you can’t go back.” She added: “And I said ‘don’t say that, don’t send me home, I’ll be fine. I wanted to succeed and make it through to the end but that was the start of everything. It’s made me really emotional but I will beat this. I will beat it.”

Beverley, who publicly shared her breast cancer diagnosis in February, also captioned the post: “That was such an emotional watch… especially knowing what I know now. I wanted to prove that age is just a number and I feel so proud of what I achieved. Just got to get through this real life trial now #imaceleb.”

Now, Beverley has confirmed that she is no longer able to attend the show’s live final on Friday (April 24) after doctors had confirmed it was unsafe for her to fly from her base in Ireland to London for the programme. Sharing the news in an Instagram video, the soap star said: “Yesterday, I should have flown to England to get ready for the I’m A Celeb final.

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“I was so excited and looking forward too it but on medical advice, I can’t go, I am gutted. I was dying to see them all and it would have been brilliant. I can’t go and yesterday, the flights were booked and everything but no, they said, it is basically too long a day with flying there and then a very late night [with filming]. I will be watching.”

While not able to attend in person, she added: “I will be on Zoom chatting to everyone. So I’ve got to make the best of a bad job but I am resting and I am doing as I am told. Thanks to everybody.”

Mohammad Shethwala and his wife Sadikabanu Tapeliwala were a young couple with a dream, selling everything they had and borrowing money off neighbours to fund a move from India to Britain, where she had been admitted for a Masters at Ulster University’s London campus.

She graduated in 2023, the same year they had their first child Fatima, and both husband and wife found enough work to slowly build a life together, even sending small amounts back home to support the family and friends who had believed in them.

On 12 June last year, in a matter of seconds, their bright future disappeared in a fiery crash next to an airport in western India. Tapeliwala and two-year-old Fatima were on board Air India Flight 171, which came down shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people including all but one of those on board.

Shethwala, who was back in London at the time, was devastated. Now, 10 months on, he is faced with another loss: the prospect of being forced to leave the UK, the country where he says every memory of his young family was made.

“I have already lost them,” the 28-year-old tells The Independent in an interview. “I want to hold on to the dream at least and fulfil it, to honour the memories I have.”

When Tapeliwala was granted her student visa in 2022, Shethwala joined her in Britain as a dependant. Their route to the UK, he says, was financed not by wealth but by sacrifice.

“We did not have money at the time to afford education in the UK,” he says. “People in our neighbourhood lent some money. Both our mothers also sold their jewellery, their life savings, to send us abroad.”

His father ran a small shop in India, earning no more than Rs 10,000 ( £78) to Rs 15,000 (£118) a month. Tapeliwala’s father sold goods door-to-door by bicycle.

Once in Britain, the couple worked relentlessly. His wife’s student visa limited her hours, Shethwala says, so he took multiple jobs, including delivery work. They spent their first year paying back the debt to those neighbours and friends. “After that, we were able to support both families,” he says.

At first, they had not planned to settle permanently. But Britain began to look less like a stopgap and more like a home.

“When we spent some time here, we decided it would be wise to settle here,” he said. “Our family background in India was not strong. But since moving here, we were able to support both her family and mine. We would not have managed it in India.”

By spring 2025, the family’s plans appeared to be falling into place. According to Shethwala, his wife had secured work connected to her studies and was preparing to switch into the Skilled Worker visa route after probation. The move would have given the family a more secure footing.

Then came a family wedding in India. Because both adults were working, they had hoped to travel together, he says, but could not get leave at the same time. He stayed behind. His wife and daughter went ahead.

On the morning Tapeliwala and Fatima were due to return to Britain, he says he called them to check in.

“She was at the airport,” he says. “My family were urging that I leave my daughter behind with them [in India]. My wife asked me if I should. But I was hesitant. My daughter was already away from me for a month.”

Fatima, he recalled, was crying at the airport. His wife said she had to go, to complete their check-in, and that she would call again once she was seated on the plane.

“That call never came,” he says.

Later that day, as he prepared to collect them from the airport, messages began arriving about a crash. He phoned the friend who had booked the tickets. Then came confirmation from multiple sources: it was the same flight.

“I was speechless,” he said. “I could not grapple with what was happening.”

Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 travelling from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed shortly after take-off and struck a medical college building on the ground. Alongside 241 passengers and crew, 19 people were killed on the ground.

Shethwala booked the first available flight to India, and until he reached there relatives tried to shield him from the worst news, insisting his wife and daughter were safe and in hospital.

When he arrived in Ahmedabad and went to the civil hospital, staff asked for a blood sample.

“I assumed, if they are taking my blood sample, it is to identify the body,” he says.

Doctors informed him there had been only one survivor.

A friend who had travelled with him then admitted the truth. “We did not tell you,” Shethwala recalled being told, “because we wanted you to reach India safely.”

His daughter’s remains were handed over to the family on 17 June. His wife’s followed later, on 21 June.

“It was given in a coffin,” he says. “I did not open the coffin before cremation.”

For days, he said, he could not accept what had happened.

“It was like a nightmare and that at any moment, I will wake up and find them both right in front of me.”

Then, as he describes it, another blow followed the first.

“The moment I managed to stabilise, the visa issue came like a dagger,” he said.

Because his immigration status depended on his wife’s visa route, her death left his own future uncertain. According to Shethwala, had she lived, the family expected to move onto a Skilled Worker visa. He says he still has her job offer letter.

“If my wife were alive, we would have had the skilled worker visa,” he said. “Things would have been different.”

He later applied for Further Leave to Remain on compassionate grounds, arguing that his circumstances were exceptional. A psychiatric report detailing his mental health was submitted with the application, he says.

But on 9 April, around nine months after the crash, he received notice that his application had been refused. He says he was then granted temporary immigration bail while expected to leave the country.

“I was not given an opportunity to even appeal,” he says.

The Home Office has not publicly commented on the individual case, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

In reported correspondence, officials are said to have maintained that Shethwala’s circumstances did not meet the threshold for exceptional leave to remain in Britain and that support, including mental healthcare and family connections, would be available in India.

As Shethwala describes spending sleepless nights in a flat once filled with nursery rhymes, he is speaking to lawyers about whether he has any recourse to appeal.

“We believe this is a genuine humanitarian case and request fair and kind consideration,” says Ayush S Rajpal, case manager at Chionuma Law.

“Our client has lived in the UK for four years and built his life there with his wife,” he tells The Independent. “He is working and settled, and it would be very difficult for him to find similar work in India. After losing his wife, he is facing financial and emotional difficulties and is under psychiatric care. In these circumstances, we kindly request that he be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.”

Shethwala says returning to India would not bring peace.

“My relatives kept saying, ‘What will you do in London? Just return,’” he says. “But to leave the country for me is to also leave those memories bound to this place.”

He says he is not trying to exploit a loophole or rewrite the rules. He says he simply wants time: time to work, time to recover, time to remain in the place where the future he and his wife imagined briefly felt possible.

Four teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 44-year-old was killed in a crash – this is a breaking story

Four teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 44-year-old was killed in a crash near a pub.

Emergency services were called to Accrington, Lancashire, on Wednesday evening after reports that a man had been struck by a car. The victim, named as Matthew Weller, was found with serious injuries near the Nag’s Head pub, at the junction of Blackburn Road and Birch Street, Lancashire Police said. He was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The force said a VW Passat car failed to stop at the scene and was later found abandoned in Barden Road. Following enquiries, detectives arrested three 17-year-old boys from Accrington and one 18-year-old man from Blackburn on suspicion of murder.

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