Car giant Toyota said it had settled the first of hundreds of lawsuits claiming that deaths and injuries were caused by problems of sudden acceleration in its vehicles, Belfast Telegraph said.

A Toyota spokeswoman said the company reached the agreement in the wrongful death case brought by the family of Paul Van Alfen and Charlene Jones Lloyd, who were killed when their Toyota Camry slammed into a wall in Utah in 2010.

The spokeswoman would not disclose the financial terms.

Last month Toyota agreed to a settlement worth more than one billion dollars (£628 million) to resolve hundreds of lawsuits claiming economic losses suffered by Toyota owners, but hundreds more over deaths and injuries remained.

The Van Alfen case was to be the first of those tried and to serve as a bellwether for the rest. The remaining lawsuits are not affected by the settlement, Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore said.