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Nathan Nightingale fails to save his fiancée Rachel Hardy in emotional scenes as Holly Cunningham loses control of her car
HOLLYOAKS viewers were left gobsmacked after tonight's E4 episode saw a shock death.
Rachel Hardy was the unlucky victim of the horrifying car crash which led to a huge explosion, after Holly Cunningham (Amanda Clapham) lost control of her car.
After leaving Robbie and Jason Roscoe at the airport to allow them to start a new life abroad,
Holly and her friend Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) were on their way home when tragedy struck.
Holly had been drinking and lost control of her car, before driving into a metal structure,
but also involved in the accident were Nathan Nightingale (Jared Garfield) and his partner Rachel.
The couple were driving off to start their new adventure travelling around South America, after having broken up in the previous episode.
Nathan was shocked to learn Rachel had known about his brother Alfie's cancer diagnosis, but the pair later made up and set off for their journey.
In the aftermath of the crash, Nathan was concerned that he couldn't wake Rachel up, but she then came round and told him to help the others.
Holly was able to get out of her car, while Cleo was unconscious and trapped, so Nathan rushed over to help free the injured teenager.
But he faced a race against time to save her as the metal structure above began to move, eventually falling down on top of the car.
Luckily for Cleo Nathan got her and Holly to safety before the structure came down and later caused a huge explosion – but it was Nathan's car that blew up.
With Rachel still inside the car, Nathan battled to get past the flames to save her but he was too late and she sadly died.
The episode saw Jennifer Brookes, who played Rachel, bow out from the soap after under a year in the role.