TWO elderly men have been seriously injured after a plane crashed into a Hampshire garden.

The single engine 1960 Piper aircraft come down in the grounds of a property in Woodlands Road near Netley Marsh.

Emergency services were called at 2.15pm to reports the light aircraft had crashed down in a garden with two people trapped.

A total of 15 firefighters from Totton, Lyndhurst and St Mary's fire stations were sent to the scene to help free the stricken pilot and passenger.

An ambulance service spokeswoman said two men in their seventies were treated at the scene before being taken by ambulance to Southampton General Hospital.

One suffered non-life threatening but serious fractures. The other was more seriously hurt.

The plane, which was flying from Bembridge to Popham, near Basingstoke, has two "fairly full" fuel tanks, which firefighters are trying to make safe.

A cordon has been thrown up around the scene of the crash.

Chief Inspector Gary Cooper told the Daily Echo from the scene: "It is quite a built up area with lots of dwellings around.

"The pilot has done very well. The aircraft hit the top of the roof as it came down before going into the garden.

"The pilot and passenger suffered significant injuries and both have been taken to Southampton General Hospital for treatment.

"We are trying to get in touch with the next of kin."

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was scrambled to the scene but not required to airlift the men to hospital, an ambulance spokeswoman said.

Police have closed Woodlands Road both ways between the A336 Ringwood Road and Bourne Lane.

One neighbour told how the plane hit the roof of her home as it came down.

Retired sales executive Shirley Laing, 65, said: "We saw this plane approaching quite rapidly but heard nothing. We just saw this shadow.

"It just skimmed the roof of the house and managed to get across the road and went down in the field directly behind the bungalows on the opposite side of the road."

A spokeswoman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), part of the Department for Transport, said: ''We have deployed a team to the site to commence an investigation.''

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