This is the smiling Christmas selfie taken by a family just seconds before their car exploded and burst into flames when it crashed into a ravine.

The horror smash on 23rd December killed a husband and wife and their five-year-old daughter and left two others seriously injured.

The photo shows the three dead sitting in the back seat of the car while a woman wearing glasses smiles at the camera from the driving seat.

Video footage shot after the crash shows the car in flames and then, later, its charred, mangled remains.

The family were travelling to celebrate Christmas with relatives in the Brazilian state of Bahia when the tragedy happened on a road in Santa Luzia do Cariri.

Those confirmed dead are nurse Erica Viviane,32, and her husband Marcelo Aquino,34, as well as their daughter Marianne Aquino.

The two family members who survived were identified as the driver Carlos Medeiros Santos, 34, and the front seat passenger Eniceria Dias Medeiros, 31.

It was not specified in local media how they are related to the rest of the family.

The two survivors were taken to the hospital in the city of Sume but transferred to the emergency and trauma hospital in Campina Grande.

The three who died had been trapped in the car when it caught fire.

It is unclear why the car left the BR-412 and fell into a ravine where it exploded.

But police believe the driver lost control and it was noted that they had taken a selfie shortly before the tragedy.

They said that shortly after the driver tried to avoid a hole, lost control of the vehicle, and crashed into a ravine.

They confirmed that the two people hospitalised are expected to survive and the cause of the tragedy is being investigated.