Ursula and Sabina Eriksson

Ursula Eriksson and Sabina Eriksson (born 3 November 1967) are Swedish twin sisters who came to national attention in the United Kingdom in May 2008.

The twins had been in Ireland before travelling to the UK and boarding a bus for London in Liverpool.

Their odd behaviour after exiting the bus at a service station on the M6 motorway caused the driver not to allow them back on board.

The two were later seen on the central reservation of the M6 motorway.

When Highways England traffic officers arrived to assist the women, they ran across the busy motorway, as captured by a small television crew.

Ursula managed to dodge traffic, but Sabina was knocked over.

Shortly after police arrived, the women again dashed onto the motorway and were struck by oncoming vehicles.

Ursula suffered serious injuries, and when Sabina regained consciousness, she refused medical aid and attacked a police officer, at which point she was arrested and sedated.

Appearing calm, though behaving unusually, Sabina was processed by police in Stoke-on-Trent and was later released from custody.

Shortly afterwards, she was seen and taken in by Glenn Hollinshead, of Fenton, Staffordshire, whom she suddenly stabbed to death the next day.

Sabina was then pursued running from the scene and arrested in hospital after jumping from a bridge onto a busy trunk road.

Despite these incidents, there was no evidence that drugs or alcohol were involved in the incidents on the M6 or the killing of Hollinshead.

Sabina later pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility, after an apparent episode of folie à deux (or "shared psychosis"), a rare psychiatric disorder in which delusional beliefs are transmitted from one individual to another.

Another possible explanation could be that the twins share the same genetic makeup and therefore exhibit the same psychiatric disorder.

In this case, if one twin has schizophrenia, the other twin may have a chance of developing the same disorder.

Sabina Eriksson and her identical twin sister, Ursula Eriksson, were born in Sweden on 3 November 1967, and grew up in Sunne, Värmland, with an older sister named Mona and an older brother named Björn.

In their youth there was no apparent history of mental health issues or criminal convictions, and by 2000, Ursula was living in the United States while Sabina was living in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland with her spouse and two children.

Ursula visited Sabina on Friday, 16 May 2008, but for reasons that were unclear, the sisters secretly departed Sabina's home for Liverpool, England.

Probably travelling by ferry, they arrived in Liverpool at 8:30am on Saturday, and went to St Anne Street Police Station, apparently in order to report concerns over the safety of Sabina's children.

Liverpool Police contacted Dublin to follow up the request, learning that Sabina had had a fight with her partner the previous night.

At around 11:30am that morning, the pair then boarded a National Express coach headed to London.

A police report stated that the twins suddenly disembarked from the bus at Keele services, a motorway service station, as they were not feeling well.

The driver of the bus, however, said he left them at Keele services, even though it was not a scheduled rest stop, at around 1:00pm after becoming suspicious of their erratic behavior.

He noticed the twins clinging to their bags tightly and did not let them re-board because they refused to let him search their bags for illegal items.

The manager of the service station was informed and, also feeling suspicious of the pair's demeanor, movements, and fixation on their bags, she called the police.

Officers arrived to talk to them but left after saying that the women seemed harmless.

As seen on closed-circuit television cameras, the pair departed the services on foot and began to walk down the central reservation of the M6 before attempting to cross it, causing chaos to the traffic and picking up minor injuries in the attempt – Sabina having been struck by a SEAT León.

Their elder brother claimed in a Swedish newspaper that his sisters were fleeing from maniacs who were chasing them, although there is nothing to support this.

Highways Agency officers responded to the incident, and police from the Central Motorway Police Group were called to assist.

The police were accompanied by a small television crew who happened to be filming Motorway Cops with the officers.

Standing on the north direction hard shoulder of the motorway, the police were being apprised of the situation when, without warning, Ursula broke free and ran into the side of an oncoming Mercedes-Benz Actros 2546 articulated lorry travelling at around 56 mph (90 km/h).

Sabina then quickly followed her into the road and was hit head-on by a Volkswagen Polo travelling at high speed.

Both survived.

Ursula was immobilised as the lorry had crushed her legs, and Sabina spent fifteen minutes unconscious.

The pair were treated by paramedics; however, Ursula resisted medical aid by spitting, scratching, and screaming.

Ursula told the police officers restraining her, "I recognise you – I know you're not real", and Sabina, now conscious, shouted "They're going to steal your organs".

To the surprise of the police, Sabina got to her feet, despite attempts from police officers Tracy Cope and Paul Finlayson to persuade her to stay on the ground.

Sabina started screaming for help and calling for the police even though they were present, then hit officer Cope in the face, before running into traffic on the other side of the motorway.

Emergency workers and several members of the public caught up with her, restrained, and carried her to a waiting ambulance, at which point she was handcuffed and sedated.

Ursula was released from the hospital after recovering, and now lives in Bellevue, Washington, US, but Sabina was sentenced to five years imprisonment and released on parole in 2011 before returning to Sweden.