English tourists die after crash

A holidaying English couple died in Southland yesterday after a head-on crash between two rental cars about 60km southeast of Te Anau. The vehicles collided on a sweeping bend on State Highway 97, known as Mossburn Five Rivers Rd, about 3km east of Mossburn, about 12.05pm, Senior Sergeant Richard McPhail of Southland police said.

The husband, aged 73, died at the scene and his 64-year-old wife was airlifted to Southland Hospital in Invercargill but died three hours later.

An Israeli man and woman in their 20s travelling in the other car were not seriously hurt.