EAST Lancashire rally driver Justin Birchall has been seriously injured in the Dakar Rally Crash.

Justin Birchall, who runs Birchall Foodservice on Hapton’s Network 65 Business Park, was injured in South America taking part in the world's toughest rally today.

His Land Rover Defender team support vehicle was involved in a head-on collision while travelling in convoy on day five of the challenge with other support vehicles in the town of Tacna, in Peru near the Chilean border.

A spokesman for the Race2Recovery team said a support vehicle the three team members were travelling in during the Dakar Rally was involved in a head-on collision in Peru which is believed to have left two other people dead.

He was transferred to a local hospital and later flown by aircraft to another hospital in Lima where they are said to be "stable and conscious" with injuries described as "non-life-threatening".