TRIBUTES have been paid to two teenagers who were killed in a car accident near North Nibley.

It happened at Furzeground Wood, in Damery Lane, near the rear of Michaelwood services at 10.55pm on Tuesday.

Two men, named locally as Harry Smith, 17, and Ollie Pain, 18, from the Dursley and North Nibley area, were killed in the single-vehicle crash.

Their families have been informed and Gloucestershire coroners' office said an inquest into their deaths would open tomorrow.

Tributes have been paid to the teenagers, believed to have been sixth form students at Katharine Lady Berkeley's School in Wotton-under-Edge, on Twitter.

Danielle Schofield posted: "Its always the good people that get taken from us too young. RIP."

Sian Slack said: "RIP Ollie and Harry, you will be missed."

Beckii Lammond wrote: "Too many people die young. Rest in peace, thoughts are with friends and family."

Both were members of Sodbury Vale Young Farmers' Club and it is believed they were travelling home from a bonfire and fireworks event in Old Sodbury on Tuesday night.

Secretary Emily Lawrence said on behalf of the club: "Harry and Ollie were fun loving and popular members of Sodbury Young Farmers. It is a huge shock to the club and they will be greatly missed.

"Our thoughts are with their friends and families at this terrible time."

Friends of the two teenagers visited the scene of the accident yesterday to pay their respects, with some leaving floral messages.

Taylor Williams, 21, from North Nibley, told the Gazette what Harry was like.

"A great kid, always happy, always had a smile on his face, he was countryside through and through," he said. "Both were great guys."

Ollie Price, 18, also from the North Nibley area, said he had known Ollie Pain for his entire life.

"He was a really nice guy, you could always get along with him, he was always up for a laugh," he said.

"I went to college with him everyday. I will miss him."

A spokesman for Gloucestershire police said: "Police are investigating after a collision near Dursley in which two people sadly died.

"A red Renault Clio has come off the road at Furzeground Wood. It is thought no other vehicles were involved.

"The driver, an 18-year-old man from North Nibley, and the passenger, a 17-year-old boy from Dursley, died at the scene."

Police are appealing for witnesses and are particularly interested in speaking to a woman who was driving a Suzuki 4x4 vehicle who stopped at the scene shortly after the collision.

Anyone who witnessed the incident should call police on 101 quoting incident 506 of November 13.

A Great Western Ambulance Service spokesman sent an ambulance, emergency care practitioner and a hazardous response team to the scene but the teenagers had died before they arrived.

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service deployed 10 firefighters and two appliances and the road was closed until 7am yesterday.

No one from Katharine Lady Berkeley's School was available for comment yesterday.