A man has been shot dead by police during a “pre-planned operation” in West Yorkshire in which a total of five people were arrested.

The fatal incident occurred near the M62 motorway in Huddersfield at around 6pm on Monday, West Yorkshire Police said.

Three people were arrested at the scene of the shooting and another two people were arrested in a related incident in Bradford, police confirmed this morning.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed as a matter of course, and the force says it is “fully co-operating” with the watchdog's investigation.

A police spokesman said: “Around 6pm this evening (Monday January 2), during a pre-planned policing operation near to the M62 in Huddersfield a police firearm was discharged and a man has died.

”An immediate referral has been made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who are in attendance in West Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Police are fully co-operating with their investigation.“

The other people arrested required hospital treatment for injuries "not related to firearm discharge", the police spokesman added.

The car is understood to have been driving when it was stopped by at least one unmarked police car.

Photographs of the scene appear to show three bullet holes visible through the smashed front windscreen of the white Audi.

West Yorkshire police would at first only confirm that “an incident” was ongoing and motorists driving past the scene believed there had been an accident.

Gemma Wilson, a local Conservative councillor, told Sky News: ”I assumed at first it was a crash but realised if it was, it was a major one due to the volume of police in the area and the wide area that was cordoned off.

“It was obviously concerning to see so many police cars as clearly something serious had happened so close to home.”

Five hours after their initial tweet about an “incident”, the force issued its statement saying a man had died after being shot.

The dead man’s identity has not yet been released but his family has been informed, according to the IPCC.

The incident is the fifth fatal police shooting in England and Wales in the past nine months and the first involving West Yorkshire Police since 2010.