Colchester murder arrest after man killed as car hits pub Published duration 3 November 2019

image caption A white Nissan Qashqai hit the Spinnaker Inn in Hythe Quay, Colchester

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man died when a car hit a pub in Essex.

Police said a 36-year-old man died when the white Nissan Qashqai hit the Spinnaker Inn in Hythe Quay, Colchester, at about 00:30 GMT.

Three others who had been at the pub were taken to hospital, including a man who has life-changing injuries.

The 40-year-old man is also being held on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, death by dangerous driving and assault.

image caption Police urged anyone with dashcam and mobile phone footage of the crash to contact them

Police said the seriously injured 34-year-old man was taken to hospital, along with a 34-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man who both had minor injuries.

Officers urged anyone who saw a white Nissan Qashqai before the crash to contact them, along with anyone in the pub who they have not spoken to.

They are also appealing for dashcam and mobile phone footage.

The road was closed for seven hours and reopened at 09:00.

One man said that his friend was taken to hospital by helicopter with two broken legs, two broken hips and possibly a broken sternum.

He added: "He has injuries from the waist down, and someone was saying maybe head injuries, but I'm waiting for updates at the moment.

"He was with a group of about four people."

At the scene

By Jenny Kirk, BBC News

The car has destroyed a wooden fence attached to the pub, which is the seating area for smokers.

You can see it has hit the brickwork as well.

Mandeep Sandhu lives close by and says the area is a residential area popular with students and the pub is busy, especially on a Sunday.

"I went to sleep at about 23:00, all of a sudden, about an hour or two later, we heard a massive bang.

"Because it was Halloween and Guy Fawkes, we put it down to fireworks. We didn't think anything of it and went back to sleep," he said.

"Then we woke up to this kind of carnage, it's bad."

He said he believed the pub was not as packed as normal as many people were possibly at parties elsewhere, so "it could have been a lot worse".

image caption Mandeep Sandhu said he heard a "massive bang" during the night