Teenage boy and girl die in horror accident as car hits wall and tree

The tragedy happened after the car they were driving smashed into a pine tree.

No other cars were involved in the crash which happened along a quiet residential road.

Police last night named the teenagers killed as Ahlee Jackson and Callum Matheson. Both were 17 and from Inverness.

Witnesses said the car skidded out of control at a tight bend in the road before hitting a lamp-post, a brick wall and finally a pine tree.

One local said: "It appears the vehicle didn't make the bend and went straight on. It destroyed a lamp-post then demolished a 12-inch thick wall scattering chunks of stone and sending one big piece 20 metres down the road. It then appears to have carried on into the garden and hit a big pine tree."

Last night devastated friends posted comments on the social networking site Bebo.

One said: "RIP callum, one of my best friends when we were young! I actually can't believe it. My heart goes out to your family."

Another said: "rip callum, still cnt believe this u header. never be forgotten babe, got so many memories of ya, wat a carry on we had." And a mutual friend of the pair wrote: "Rest In Peace Callum Matheson & Ahlee Jackson. Thoughts Are With You And Your Family. Sleep Tight."

Emergency services were called to the scene and Northern Police crash experts shut off the road to carry out their investigation.

Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service cut the bodies free from the wreckage of the vehicle before the bodies were taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for post-mortem examinations.

The pair were in a black Skoda Fabia on Island Bank Road, which skirts the River Ness from Inverness city centre to the south shore of Loch Ness.

Onlookers said it looked as if the car had tried to turn the tight corner into Drummond Crescent, which leads up a steep hill connecting the riverside with the Lochardil housing estate.

Inverness councillor John Finnie said: "This double death is a terrible tragedy for the victims, the family and the whole community. I know the location, a quiet road leading out of the town.

"It is not a dangerous area. It is extremely unusual for a death to occur in such a quiet residential area. This news has shocked the whole community and my thoughts are with the victims' families."

Meanwhile, two American military personnel were injured in an accident in a car in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh.

The man and woman, both 27, who had recently returned from Afghanistan, were in a car on Edinburgh Road on Saturday night when the accident happened.

The woman was initially taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but was later transferred to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where her condition last night was described as "serious".

The man suffered only "minor injuries".

A Lothian and Borders police spokesman said: "A 27-year-old American woman is in a serious condition in the Western General Hospital following an incident."