Four dead in fireball crash after police chase on Costa del Sol motorway following pharmacy robbery

A police chase along the Costa del Sol has ended in the most tragic way. A National Police vehicle has collided with the car in which three fugitives were fleeing after being caught allegedly robbing a Malaga pharmacy. Four people are reported to have died in the collision.

The incident happened at around 5.30 am at an exit off the A-7 motorway towards Torremolinos, following a chase that began in the northwest area of Malaga city.

According to sources consulted by SUR, it all started with a robbery in a pharmacy - where there is a special device in place due to the high incidence of robberies in these establishments - located in Calle Lope de Rueda, in the Puerto de la Torre neighbourhood.

The criminals, who crashed the car into the front of the chemist's shop, a practice known in Spanish as "alunizaje", fled in a large car. From there, a high-speed chase began, in which members of the National and Local Police forces took part.

There are several different versions of the accident, which is still under investigation by the Guardia Civil's traffic division. What seems clear is that there was a head-on collision between two cars and that the vehicle in which the fugitives fled was apparently travelling in the opposite direction to other traffic on the road.

According to sources, the collision occurred during the pursuit, although other sources indicated that the police vehicles had already lost sight of the fleeing vehicle and that it collided head-on with another car in which a National Police officer was apparently travelling.

As a result of the accident, both cars caught fire and the four occupants - three of them in the getaway car and the police officer in the other - died almost instantly.