A 19-year-old man involved in an accident on the M2 in the early hours of Thursday morning has died in hospital.

The man, from Sittingbourne, was driving a blue Vauxhall Corsa just after 3.30am when it crashed into the side of a jack-knifed lorry trailer that was blocking the carriageway between Sittingbourne and Faversham.

He was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, but later died. He has not yet been formally identified.

His 20-year-old female passenger, who is from Canterbury, was also taken to hospital, but has since been discharged.

Leading firefighter Stuart Beadle from Sittingbourne fire station said: "The car was embedded under the trailer so we had to cut open the car door and part the trailer in order to get the man and woman out."

Fire Officer Peter Yarwood from Faversham attended the accident and helped cut the man and woman out of the car.

He said: "The police called us out at 3.36am after a small car hit a jack-knifed articulated lorry which was blocking the whole carriageway."

The motorway was very icy at the time of the accident.