Four members of the British band Viola Beach were killed when their manager drove their car through two crash barriers into a raised bridge before plunging into a canal below, an inquest has heard.

Craig Tarry, 32, was behind the wheel of the hired Nissan Qashqai taking the band back to their hotel after playing at a festival for upcoming bands in the Swedish town of Norkopping near Stockholm, Sweden last February.

He died along with Kris Leonard, 19, River Reeves, 19, Tomas Lowe, 27, and Jack Dakin, 19. The four-piece Warrington-based band had flown out from Manchester the night before.

The inquest into their deaths was told that a toxicology test found no drugs or alcohol in Tarry's body.

The father of Mr Reeves, a guitarist in the band, said his son died "doing something he loved, with people he loved being with".

The court heard that warning lights and barriers were in place to warn drivers that the bridge was closed, but that the band's car mounted a verge to pass two lanes of stationary traffic before driving through two separate road barriers, almost a hundred metres apart.

One witness, a truck driver, told officers that the car was driving at almost 50mph when it collided with the barrier, and he did not see it brake at any point.

Other drivers told police that warning lights leading to the bridge were clearly visible.

Cheshire Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said that there was no evidence of any mechanical fault in the car nor in the mechanism of the lifting bridge.