Two armed response officers tragically died in the line of duty when their patrol car was hit head-on by teenage joyriders driving the wrong way on a major road.PC Matthew Blades, 38, and PC Tom Clough, 37, were among seven people killed in the crash on the A66 at Middlesbrough yesterday.The officers and the five occupants of a Volkswagen Passat were all declared dead at the scene.On Saturday night it emerged Makai Saddington, one of the teenagers killed in the crash, had posted a string of TikTok videos appearing to show him taking part in high-speed police chases.Cleveland Police lowered flags to half-mast at their Middlesbrough headquarters in tribute to their fallen colleagues, with the force confirming the uniformed constables were driving their marked armed-response vehicle on the correct side of the A66 before the head-on crash with the 'suspicious' car at 3.39am.Ring doorbell footage shows that, just three minutes earlier, the VW Passat was driven at speed through Middlesbrough's streets before police halted the chase when the vehicle turned on to the A66 and into the path of the patrol car. It is understood the two officers who were killed were not part of the pursuit.Since the crash, it has emerged that one of the joyriders, Mr Saddington, posted a string of TikTok clips seemingly showing him taking part in police chases in the months before his death. In one clip, filmed in May by a passenger and set to rap music, the 18-year-old is seen in an Audi being driven at speed through a housing estate with a police car's blue lights flashing in pursuit, before the vehicle veers across a grassy playing field in an apparent bid to shake off officers. Makai Saddington, 18, had posted videos on TikTok of him being chased by police in the past few month One video, posted in the last month, shows the 18-year-old driving through a park while being chased by police In the same video, the camera pans to the back window to show the police chasing the vehicle Makai Saddington posted videos on his Tiktok of men in balaclavas driving cars at speed This is the moment police are seen pursuing a car down a narrow road just minutes before seven people, including two police officers, were killed in a head-on smash Another video on an account associated with him shows a green Nissan being driven around before it is set alight, while separate images posted elsewhere show him and a friend posing in cars wearing black balaclavas.The clips reflect a trend of young men filming themselves being pursued by police at high speed, and posting the clips on social media in pursuit of views and likes. The crash comes just days after five teenagers died in a head-on collision on a motorway in Ireland.In that incident, the masked youngsters were in a stolen BMW which was travelling the wrong way down the M9 in County Kildare at 2am last Sunday.Police had tried to pull the stolen car over, but it sped off the wrong way down the M9 to avoid a stinger device that had been deployed to stop the car.The occupants of the other vehicle – three sisters and a seven-year-old boy – suffered serious injuries in the crash and remain in hospital. Yesterday, the mother of Mr Saddington's one-year-old son posted on social media: 'What am I supposed to do without ur daft phone calls and u torching (sic) me life's so cruel.'Other victims were named locally as Michael Ray, Theo Rae and Cole Worthy.It is understood Mr Saddington and his companions had close links to the traveller community.Householders in Lime Road, a mile from the crash site, told how they were woken by the noise as the stolen car 'shot down' the street followed by police cars.