Emergency services rushed to save a woman who became trapped following a crash between two cars and a lorry.

Two fire engines from Winchester and Sutton Scotney fire stations raced to the incident on the A34 southbound near the junction with the A303 to cut her free.

They were called out at 6.38pm last night after a lorry and two cars were involved in a collision.

Fire crews had to use specialist equipment including spreaders and saws to completely remove the side of the car and free the trapped woman who was a passenger in one of the cars.

She was described as having serious head injuries and was taken to hospital by ambulance crews.

The car she was in was completely written off.

The fire service is currently proposing to cut the numbers of firefighters based at Winchester.

Under one proposal the first response for an incident such as this would have been two firefighters in a small vehicle, without the necessary resources to cut anyone free from a car.

Under the second Winchester would have been covered by retained firefighters.