Police in Glasgow are appealing for witnesses following a serious road crash on the M8 near to junction 13 (Provan) on Wednesday.
Around 1.10pm, a Mercedes A45 collided with an unmarked Volvo S90 police car and a Mercedes CLS, which were on the hard shoulder of the eastbound carriageway.
Three occupants from the Mercedes A45 made off after the crash. Following police enquiries, three men aged 27, 39, and 33 years have since been traced.
Seven men, including two police officers, were taken by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Glasgow Royal Infirmary in relation to the crash.
Hospital staff describe the condition of a 48-year-old police officer, 43-year-old man, and a 39-year old man as critical.
READ MORE: Two police officers taken to hospital after crash closes M8 eastbound
The condition of a 38-year-old police officer and a 33-year-old man are described as serious. A further man is being treated for minor injuries.
The 27-year-old man, who is also being treated for minor injuries, has been arrested in connection with road traffic offences. Enquiries are continuing.
The eastbound carriageway remains closed while investigations are carried out, with local diversions in place.
Chief Superintendent Hilary Sloan, Head of Road Policing for Police Scotland, said: "The investigation into this serious road crash is ongoing and I would urge anyone who has not already spoken to police to come forward with any information that may assist us.
"I would ask any drivers with dash-cam to please check their footage and contact us if it holds information relevant to this crash.
"Anyone with information is asked to please contact 101 quoting reference number 1672 of 24 July."
Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors said: “Our thoughts are very much with our two colleagues, one of whom has been critically injured, and the members of the public also critically injured in this incident.
“The two officers have put themselves in harm’s way carrying out their duties and we are immensely proud of the work they and colleagues do every day to keep communities safe.
“We will provide them and their families all the support they need at this difficult time.”
David Kennedy, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation said: “Our thoughts and hopes go out to our injured colleagues, their families and friends.
"Whilst occurrences of this nature are mercifully rare, what this does, is highlight the situations and the risks that police officers across Scotland take every day in keeping our communities safe.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here