Three people were killed and two seriously injured when an ambulance and a car collided on a country road near Thessaloniki late on Friday night.

The collision, of which the cause was unclear, was so violent that the 41-year-old ambulance driver, the 88-year-old female patient and a 38-year-old doctor were all killed instantly. The 39-year-old driver of the car and a 53-year-old rescue worker in the ambulance, who were seriously injured in the crash, were still in hospital yesterday.

Another hospital patient died in a car crash in Aigio in the Peloponnese, also on Friday, as was revealed yesterday. An 11-year-old boy had been taken to two different hospitals for allergic shock treatment after being stung by a wasp. Returning home, the car being driven by the boy’s father hit another vehicle and the 11-year-old was killed instantly. The other four people in the two cars escaped unscathed.