The editor of the North Wales Daily Post has defended the paper’s description of a weekend of road collisions in the region that left two dead as “carnage” after it was criticised by police as insensitive.

The headline, which read: “Carnage on the roads”, was said by North Wales Police chief constable Mark Polin to have been “particularly harsh”.

In an open letter to the paid-for daily, he accused reporters of having “scant regard for the families concerned or for those whose job it is to help those involved in these tragic incidents”.