The family of a baby boy killed alongside three adults in a horrific car crash have criticised police over the high-speed chase which led to their deaths.
Adnan Ashraf Jarral, 35, died along with his one-year-old son, Usman, when a car fleeing the police smashed head-on into his people carrier in a quiet Sheffield suburb on Friday night.
Mr Jarral's wife Tahreen was cut out of the vehicle's mangled wreckage and is in hospital with a broken leg and back injuries. Her 22-year-old friend, named locally as Nikola Dunova, was also in the VW Touran along with her parents Miroslav Duna, 50, and Vlasta Dunova, 41, who both died at the scene.
Miss Dunova and her three-year-old daughter Livia were fighting for their lives in hospital last night.
The two families were returning home from a day trip to London when their vehicle was hit by a speeding VW Golf, which was travelling on the wrong side of the road while being chased by a police BMW.
Three men in the Golf – aged 17, 18 and 23 – were arrested at the scene and are being held in custody on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Mr Jarral's uncle Shafqat Mirza questioned the police's decision to pursue the car through a residential area and said 'the tragedy had left a gap which can never be filled'.
Mr Mirza said: 'It may be that police ought to have laid off and let it go and found some other ways and means of chasing the car, knowing that it was a wet and dangerous road.
'Maybe if police had handled things differently then the accident wouldn't have happened.
'I'm not wholly blaming the police but if there are ways and means of doing the chase in a different way, then the police ought to take that into consideration.'
Tariq Mirza, 57, another of Adnan's uncles, refused to blame the three occupants of the VW Golf for the fatal crash, who are all in police custody. He said that in his religion: 'We believe what will happen will happen'.
However Tariq said wanted the tragic events to be a lesson to the public.
It is thought Mrs Jarral was originally from Slovakia and had converted to Islam and changed her name. The couple were said to have been planning a trip to Mecca at the end of the month.
The seven occupants of the VW Touran included Adnan's wife Tahreem, who is in hospital, and her friend, who also remains in hospital.
Tahreem's friend's parents both died in the fatal crash, while her friend's three-year-old daughter is said to be in a critical condition in hospital.
