A PENSIONER died following a succession of car crashes on the A1(M) after two runaway horses galloped across the busy carriageway, police said.

James Balmer, 71, suffered fatal head and internal injuries after his Toyota Corolla hit one of the horses on Sunday night.

It was one of six crashes on the southbound carriageway at about 9.15pm, half a mile south of the Bowburn interchange in County Durham.

The tragedy was sparked by an initial accident in which a Ford Mondeo left the motorway and careered through a fence into a field startling two horses, which then ran out into the road.

The Mondeo driver, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, suffered minor injuries.

Four other cars were then involved in accidents, either clipping or hitting one or both of the animals, before two of the cars careered down an embankment.

The stretch of motorway was closed for almost seven hours following the incident.

Two cars managed to stop on the hard shoulder after hitting the horses, but Mr Balmer's car and a Fiat Tempra, driven by a 47-year-old man from London - who escaped with minor injuries - careered off the road.

Mr Balmer, of Whitehouse Drive, Stockton, was taken to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough but died yesterday morning.

His wife, Sheila, a front-seat passenger, also needed hospital treatment for minor injuries.

A sixth vehicle, a Saab, hit debris from the collisions on the other side of the motorway and crashed.

Eyewitness James Bradshaw, from Darlington, said: "We were going along at about 70mph and we saw this car shoot past us and he swerved into the central reservation.

"He did a 360 degree spin in front of us and went front-first down the bank, hitting a fence.

"The police later told me that in hitting the fence, horses had been released on to the motorway.

"I stopped on the hard shoulder and my friend rang the emergency services. When they turned up I left but I didn't see anything else. I heard later that there were six cars involved."

The southbound carriageway between Bowburn and Bradbury was closed from 9.45pm on Sunday until 4.30am yesterday.

One horse was killed and the other ran off and had not been found last night.

Police asked witnesses to any of the collisions to call the accident investigation unit on 0191-375 2159.