A British tourist has been killed and her partner and daughter seriously injured in a New Year tragedy on a notorious Costa Blanca 'death alley' road.

The woman, believed to be in her 60s, died when the holiday hire car was involved in a head-on crash with another vehicle.

The family had just touched down at Alicante airport and were driving to a villa when the crash happened on the N332 road at Santa Pola.

The accident blackspot on the N332 is about a 12-minute drive from the airport, has been the scene on numerous fatal accidents.

A motorist died at the beginning of the year, a woman was killed recently when her car hit a school bus and there was a four-vehicle pile-up just a month ago.

The Sunday afternoon accident left the woman, believed to be from Bedfordshire, and five other people injured.

The woman's partner is understood to have been critically injured and was rushed to hospital in a coma.

Spanish police, a fleet of ambulances and a helicopter raced to the scene and firefighters had to use acetylene equipment to cut four of the victims from the wreckage.

The British woman died at the scene, while the five injured were rushed to the General Hospital of Alicante, the General Hospital of Elche and the Hospital of the Vinalop .

According to sources from the Traffic Civil Guard, who are now investigating the cause of the accident, two of the injured were airlifted by a medical helicopter to the General Hospital of Alicante.

The accident closed the N332 national highway for several hours, causing tailbacks for several kilometres at a very busy point on the coast.