Teenage boy killed in crash on wintry motorway

Firefighters worked in snow and ice for nearly three hours but were unable to save the life of the 16-year-old boy who was trapped beneath an articulated lorry on the A1M north of Barton on the North Yorkshire border.

The boy and his mother were hit by the lorry when they got out of their Peugeot 307 car after it hit the central reservation barrier near the A66 interchange north of Scotch Corner in freezing weather conditions.

Firefighters from North Yorkshire and County Durham worked with hydraulic lifting equipment to free the boy, who was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother, aged 46, was taken by air ambulance to Darlington Memorial Hospital. North Yorkshire Police said she suffered serious injuries.

The woman and her son were from North Shields on Tyneside. The family has been informed of the tragedy but police said they were not yet in a position to release the identity of the boy who died.

The collision happened at about 10pm on Wednesday.

Carl Boasman, of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, said weather conditions were poor. "Crews worked for over two-and-a-half hours to try to free the casualty but he did not survive his injuries."

Britain was bracing itself for the coldest night of the winter after parts of the country plunged to temperatures of a domestic freezer. Areas recorded lows of minus 17.7C (14F) on Wednesday night.

More than 100 people were waiting to return to their homes yesterday after being evacuated when freezing conditions caused a gas leak in 82 flats in Cherry Court, Burmantofts, Leeds. Engineers repaired the fractured gas main but United Utilities said residents could not return to their homes until gas readings returned to normal in the nine-storey building.

Residents were offered overnight accommodation at Fearnville Sports Centre, but it is believed most stayed with family and friends.

Northern Gas Networks has restored supplies to homes and businesses in the Shaw Cross and Hanging Heaton areas of Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire, where 450 properties were affected when water flooded a gas main on New Year's Eve.

United Utilities engineers working on behalf of the region's pipeline owner, worked late into the night to re-connect supplies to 265 properties and returned to the site yesterday. The company expected to have restored all supplies by last night.

As a safety precaution, 1,400 properties are being visited and checked. Northern Gas Networks' communication director John O'Grady said: "In the meantime, I would urge customers not to attempt to re-connect their own gas supply as this can be dangerous."

Travellers endured more mid-winter misery yesterday, with a Eurostar train breaking down in the Channel Tunnel and delays and cancellations at airports and on domestic rail services.

Trains on the government-run East Coast line between Yorkshire and London were so badly delayed that the route was removed from the National Rail website, adding to confusion for passengers – who were told only that a "reduced service" was operating. Many trains between Leeds and the capital were cancelled altogether.

Northern Rail services were hit by a series of train failures. The company, whose rolling stock is older than the national average, reported faults on services to Ilkley, Skipton, Manchester and Bolton.

A specialist underwater search team from West Yorkshire Police yesterday searched the River Ure from West Tanfield down to Newby Hall four days after Ian Simpkin, 36, failed to return to his home at Wath, near Ripon.

Insp Steve Breen, of North Yorkshire Police, who is leading the search, urged people to check outbuildings in case Mr Simpkin was sheltering there.

Thousands of homes in southern England were left without power as snow and ice disrupted electricity supplies.

And a man's body was found under ice in a lake at a country club. The body of 45-year-old Philip Hughes, from Slough, was recovered from beneath the ice in a frozen lake in Frimley Green, Surrey, where the British Darts Organisation Lakeside World Championships is taking place.