A 50-year-old woman from Belfast, a man aged 47 from Dunfermline and a woman of 43 from Sunderland also died in yesterday's crash.

The driver of the minibus, a 42-year-old man from Stretford, Manchester, was also killed, police said.

The wife of one of those killed, a 42-year-old from Dunfermline, was this morning in a serious condition in Wythenshawe Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery last night.

The couple's 14-year-old daughter is also seriously ill at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in Pendlebury.

Of the others involved in the crash, police said a 55-year-old man from Belfast, who was the partner of one of the women who died, suffered minor injuries.

A man, aged 39, from Tyne and Wear was treated in hospital for minor injuries and released from hospital yesterday.

His partner, from Sunderland, was killed in the accident.

Three men, aged 31, 32, and 35, from Leeds, all suffered minor injuries and were released following treatment in hospital yesterday, police said.

No further details of those killed in the accident were due to be released until formal identification had taken place, the spokeswoman added.

Police were today continuing their investigation into the crash, which happened as the minibus, a hotel courtesy taxi, made a 10-minute journey to Manchester Airport.

It is thought it collided with a Toyota Carina as it tried to pull back into the left-hand lane of the outbound carriageway around 5.40am yesterday.

It veered across the road, careering into the central reservation and hitting a lamppost, which sliced off its roof and part of one side.

Suitcases, once bound for holidays abroad in Mexico and the USA, were left strewn across all four lanes of the carriageway.

Police were on the scene within seconds but seven of those on board, including its driver, had already died.

Together with a passing male nurse who had stopped to help, emergency services began giving first aid, before the two most seriously injured were rushed to Wythenshawe Hospital, around a mile from the scene.

The drivers of the Carina and of two other cars involved in the crash were not seriously hurt.

Emergency services called to the scene described the accident as among the worst they had ever experienced.

Ambulance service spokesman Derek Cartwright described it as "utter carnage", while Chief Superintendent Dave Thompson said he could not imagine a more harrowing incident for his officers to deal with.

The victim from Fife was later named as Duncan Boniface from Dunfermline.

His wife Gillian, 41, and daughter Ami, 14, were both seriously injured and were fighting for their lives in hospital.

They are understood to have been heading for a family holiday in Mexico when the accident happened.