A DRIVER has died after his car hit a fence in the early hours of this morning.

The 63-year-old man, from Langley Park, near Durham, was at the wheel of a Citroen travelling southbound on the A167 Chilton bypass between Chilton and Ferryhill, County Durham, when it left the road, crashed through a wooden fence and went into a field.

Emergency services were rushed to his aid but the man was pronounced dead at the scene by a member of the ambulance team.

The victim has not yet been named by police.

It is thought no other vehicles were involved in the incident, which happened shortly after 2am.

But collision investigators from Durham Police are keen to speak to the driver of a car thought to have been in the area at the time.

Sergeant Lee Morris, from the Cleveland and Durham specialist operations department, said: “We believe there was a Ford Focus car travelling northbound on the A167 from Rushyford towards Chilton behind a yellow MG car when the collision occurred and would urge the driver of the Ford Focus to get in touch with us.

“No other vehicles were involved in the collision but we would like to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time of the collision and saw what happened.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Durham Police on 101.