A CAR ploughed into a block of Southampton flats, sending bricks flying through nearby homes.

Residents of the building on Bitterne Road West were given a rude awakening when the car smashed through a wall and into a downstairs flat in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Destroying half of the wall, bricks were sent flying through the air, smashing a window of the house next door and breaking a fence just before 4am.

The 25-year-old driver had to be rushed to hospital for treatment and the road closed after the incident that left residents ‘shocked’.

Twenty-four-year-old resident Rebecca Struthers had just finished her night shift and returned home from work when the car smashed into her building, which houses seven residents in five different flats.

Rebecca said: “I was just starting to drift off to sleep when I heard a loud bang.

“I looked out of the window but I had to convince myself that it had actually happened, I didn’t believe it, I was in shock.

“Then I went downstairs to make sure flat number one was okay.

“Workers from Southampton City Council were so quick at clearing the road, and the police and fire got here so quick, we were all really grateful.”

A number plate was left at the scene, and the residents of the building said that they overheard the car’s system automatically call the police after the collision.

A member of the St Mary’s fire crew who attended said: “We were called there about 4am and we had to extricate a man from the vehicle before he was passed over to the ambulance.

“Police were there and the road was shut because the council had to clear all the bricks from the road.”

A statement from Hampshire Constabulary said: “We received a call at 3.40am on Thursday after a car collided with a block of flats on Bitterne Road West.

“An ambulance crew attended and the driver was taken to Southampton General Hospital for treatment. His injuries are unknown.

“A road closure was in place until 4.30am while the car and debris from the building was cleared.”

Residents had been waiting for the council surveyors to deem the privately owned building as safe following the incident.

One man who lives in the flat said: “The building has sunk down where it’s been hit there’s no way it’s safe now.

“I had my headphones on at the time and it sounded like a lorry had crashed, luckily no-one was on the pavement.”