Staff and customers of a Surrey hardware shop had a lucky escape over the holidays when a car veered off the road and ploughed through the front window.
The female driver involved in the accident at Ashtead Home Hardware on New Year's Eve at 4.30pm - shortly after the shop had closed - also avoided serious injury.

"Not being here I really didn't know much about it," owner Phil Sayers told diyweek.net. "I was here till about 4 o'clock, so I'd just left and someone called me and I had to come back again. The police, ambulance and fire brigade were all there.

"Some lady managed to go through the window. I don't know how she did it but no one was hurt.

"The car was embedded in the main window. Fortunately it missed the door. The fire brigade pulled it out and made sure nothing was going to come down."

The parade of shops was cordoned off for about an hour.

Mr Sayers said that some items had been damaged in the accident, "though I haven't gone through it all yet".

Fortunately, the shop did not lose any trading days as it was shut the following day, New Year's Day, anyway.

"We managed to get it sorted out," Mr Sayers added.