A man was killed in a horrific crash last night when his car became wedged beneath a lorry in Easter Ross.
The man, thought to be in his 20s, was travelling westbound on the B9175 Nigg to Kildary road when the accident happened shortly after 5pm.
His vehicle became lodged under an articulated lorry.
The empty flatbed truck is understood to have been reversing across the road at the time.
An ambulance and a doctor attended the crash site two miles west of the Global Energy Park at Nigg but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
The lorry driver is not believed to have been injured. Neither vehicle is thought to have been carrying passengers.
More than two dozen firefighters and six fire appliances were called out along with officers from the road policing unit.
Fire service group manager for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Antony Gardner, said: “We got a call at around 5.10pm of a road traffic collision two miles west of Nigg yard involving one car and one lorry. We mobilised one appliance from Tain, two from Invergordon, one from Dingwall and the emergency rescue tender from Inverness with cutting equipment.
“On arrival, it became apparent that unfortunately the person in the car had passed away.”
He added that a fire service heavy lifting vehicle from Inverness also attended in preparation for freeing the car from beneath the lorry once the police had concluded their investigations.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “An ambulance and Basics doctor attended but were not required.”
The single carriageway road was closed in both directions for several hours while police investigated the crash scene.
A vehicle inspector from the Vehicle Operating Standards Agency also attended and carried out checks to determine whether mechanical failure contributed to the accident.