An eyewitness has described the shocking moment an Audi smashed into the back of a lorry before a window cleaning van was allegedly stolen at knifepoint minutes later. Police were called to junction 33 on the M6 following reports of a crash between a car and a lorry on Thursday.
Photos from the incident show the red Audi destroyed in the middle of the southbound carriageway.
A woman who told reporters that the Audi was being driven 'erratically' seconds before the crash said: "This must have been about 40 seconds after the crash when I stopped and the driver had just started to wander off."
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She said that the Audi driver was walking around and brushed off any advice to seek medical attention after the horror smash. She added: "People tried to stop him from wandering off as we thought he needed medical attention.
"Someone said they thought he had a knife. Then someone else said it was just a branded vape, so we started to calm down a bit. We weren't that alarmed because we thought it was a vape and knew the police were on their way. Then another person came to say they saw it was a knife."
The eyewitness told LancsLive that around five to six minutes after seeing him wander off, she she saw him allegedly emerge driving a window cleaning van. The eyewitness continued: "We thought he had just gone into the services, but we had just let him go at that point because he was shouting saying he's OK.
"The lorry driver said his eyes were popping out of his head. I didn't know where the van was, but I just saw him drive off and then another driver came onto the hard shoulder to say they saw the whole thing, that he witnessed the Audi driver get the van driver out."
The eyewitness also says that the Audi driver had a bottle of vodka in his car and wanders "how he made it out alive?".
Lancashire Police have since arrested a man. A spokesman said: "We were called at around 10am today (Thursday, February 16th) to reports of a collision between a car and a lorry on the M6 close to junction 33.
"The lorry driver was thankfully uninjured. The driver of the car – a red Audi – fled the scene on foot. Since the collision occurred we had a further report of an attempted car-jacking at Forton services, followed by a report of a van being stolen from Forton services.
"The van has since been located in Blackpool and a 31-year-old man arrested. We are treating the incidents as linked at this time and an investigation has been launched. Anybody with information is asked to call us on 101, quoting log 323 of February 16."
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