POLICE are investigating the death of a pedestrian in a collision involving a car as he was walking home in the early hours of the morning.

The dead man has been named by Durham Police accident investigators as Michael Morgan, from Chester-le-Street.

It appears he was walking south-eastwards on Station Lane, between Pelton and Pelton Fell, when he was struck by a Nissan Pathfinder, at about 4am on Saturday.

Mr Morgan was attended by paramedics, but was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 48-year-old driver of the Pathfinder was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.

He underwent interview with officers on Saturday and has been released under investigation.

Police said Mr Morgan left a property in Mossway, Pelton, at 2.30am, setting off to walk to his home in Chester-le-Street.

But detectives are keen to discover what he did in the 90 minutes between leaving the house in Mossway and the fatal collision taking place.

He is described as being of stocky build and was wearing a blue hooded coat, navy tracksuit bottoms and blue Nike trainers at the time of the incident.

Detective Superintendent Dave Ashton, who is leading the investigation, said: “We want to hear from anyone who has any information on where Michael was in the hour-and-a-half between him leaving the property and being struck by the car.

“We would also be keen to hear from anyone who has potential cctv footage from the area at the time of the incident, or any dashcam footage of Michael in the time leading up to his death.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Durham Police, via the 1012 number, quoting incident number 60, of February 9.