A HAMPSHIRE mother and her young daughter cheated death when a three-ton tree branch crashed on to their car yesterday.

Jill Strouds was driving 12-year-old daughter Hannah home from her pony club when they had their miraculous escape.

Their car was left a write-off after the huge branch snapped from an oak tree in Ringwood Road in Burley in the New Forest at about 5.30pm.

Despite the damage, the pair managed to walk away without a scratch on them.

Mrs Strouds, 40, said: "We were just driving along when all of a sudden the front windscreen was covered in greenery and branches.

"My daughter was in the front with me, so I just pushed her head down because I thought it would come through.

"It bent the roof of the car and completely smashed the back window in.

"The police told me that if the main part had landed on the front then we wouldn't be here now.

"We are just very lucky to still be alive."

Fire crews removed the massive branch from the Toyota Lucinda and police sealed off the road temporarily.

Mrs Strouds said: "When it came down it was like a firework going off.

"We were both really shaken up afterwards but luckily we were both OK.

"I don't know what caused it because it was not windy at all."

Her husband Colin, 42, picked up the shaken pair afterwards and drove them back to their house in Hyde, near Fordingbridge.

He said: "They are both very, very lucky to be alive.

"The car is a complete write-off and has been bent out of shape basically.

"But the main thing is that they are both OK."