SHOCKED neighbours have told how they tried to help an injured man after a car left the road and ended up on its side in the front garden of a house.

It is thought the black Vauxhall Astra clipped a parked vehicle and ended up skidding along on its side for 70ft before crashing through two walls leaving one of the passengers trapped inside.

Darrell Lanham, 43, who lives opposite in King George's Avenue, Shirley, Southampton, said: “I ran over with nothing on my feet and my first instinct was to try and put the car upright.

“We nearly had the car upright, but we couldn't do it as there were only three of us.

“There was steam coming out of the car.

“If it started on fire I was literally going to drag him out.”

Ken Rigney, 84, who owns the property, said: “I came downstairs and saw the flashing lights, I thought a helicopter had come down in the front garden after the noise.”

Daily Echo:

The damage left to the wall in King George's Avenue

Takeaway worker Saad Miah, 44, was at home with his wife and their six children.

“We heard a bang and I thought it was my house,” he said.

“It thought it [the car] was going to explode. It was terrifying.

“I was shocked. He could have gone straight into the house and somebody could have been seriously hurt.”

“It could have been worse if it was daytime because somebody might have beeen working in the garden.”

Barbara Gammon, whose son's girlfriend's car was damaged, said: “The way it happened, it just really shook me up. I was standing out there shaking.

“The bang it made - such a bang that I knew something awful was happening.”

Three people were in the car and residents described the occupants as in their 20s.

Some witnesses said a girl was treated at the scene by paramedics for a minor head injury.

Fire crews from Redbridge and St Mary's stations arrived and cut the man from the car.

The injured passenger in the vehicle was taken to Southampton General Hospital with injuries that police said were not thought to be serious.

Emergency services, including three ambulances, were called around 0.30am yesterday, but police said no-one else was hurt in the incident.

The driver, an 18-year-old Southampton man, was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.