Police were today hunting a fourth person from a stolen car which collided with a family hatchback leaving a six-year-old girl dead and her 18-month-old sister critically ill.

Rebecca Sawyer died when the stolen Vauxhall Astra ploughed into the family's Citroen Saxo, driven by her father Steven, 33, on New Year's Eve.

Her sister Kirsty was today in a critical condition in Newcastle General Hospital.

Two men and a woman have been questioned and released on police bail pending further inquiries into the tragedy, which happened as the family made their way to their home to Ashington, Northumberland.

One man was arrested at the scene of the smash, at the junction of College Road and Sixth Avenue in Ashington.

Another man and a woman later attended a police station voluntarily where they were arrested.

Northumbria Police today said they were still trying to trace another man in connection with the incident.

A spokesman said: ''Three people arrested in relation to the crash have been bailed pending further inquiries. Police are still trying to trace a fourth man.''

Mr Sawyer, himself injured in the collision, and his wife Sharon were today expected to make a public appeal for the fourth man to give himself up.

The Astra car, which police said was bearing stolen number plates, had been taken from County Durham, a week earlier.

Throughout yesterday family and relatives laid flowers and cards at the crash scene, and some wept openly in the street as the surveyed the debris still lying at the roadside.