A person has died after a vehicle crashed on the A1 last night.

Police say a Mercedes collided with trees after leaving the northbound carriageway at around 9pm on Christmas Eve.

One person - the driver - was killed as a result of the collision, which happened north of junction 1 for the M25 and South Mimms.

Police confirmed this afternoon he was a man aged in his 40s.

A passenger suffered slight injuries, police added, and they were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Hertfordshire Constabulary said shortly after 11.30pm last night it was dealing with an incident and warned motorists the A1 would be shut for some time.

Shortly after midnight, the force updated its Facebook post to say a person had passed away.

It said: "Sadly we can confirm that someone has sadly died as a result of this incident and if anyone has any information please do not hesitate to make contact with us."

Police say the grey Mercedes GLC 350 was the only vehicle involved in the crash and put out an immediate appeal for witnesses.

The A1 remain closed throughout the night, and stayed closed after collision investigators left.

National Highways said tree surgeons needed to attend the scene to make sure the area was safe.

The highways operator tweeted at 8.44am today (Christmas Day) that the road had reopened.

A number of motorists were caught in the closure with traffic officers working past midnight to clear the traffic.

An investigation is ongoing to determine how and why the Mercedes came to leave the road.

Sergeant Simon Cooper, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit, said: "This is a very sad incident, especially on Christmas Eve, and my thoughts are with the victim’s family who are receiving specialist support from officers.

 

"I am appealing for anyone who saw the collision or the events leading up to it to get in touch. I am also keen to hear from anyone who thinks they caught the collision or the lead-up on their dash cam.

"Please get in touch if you can help so we can establish what happened."

Anyone with information can visit herts.police.uk/report or call 101, quoting Op Kodiak.