A MOTHER has described how she and her daughter were just inches from being seriously injured when a car crashed through the locked gates of Malvern Priory.

Kirsty Johnson and her three-year-old daughter Ellie were on their way to the Lyttelton Rooms shortly before 10am on Tuesday when the incident occurred, leaving them severely shaken but unharmed.

“It was very traumatic, but we are both fine,” said Mrs Johnson, who was holding Ellie when the incident occurred. “I could see the vehicle coming towards the gates at quite a speed and realised it was not going to stop. It just smashed straight through the gates very close to where we were standing. It hit the left hand gate post and any further to the left was exactly where we were standing.”

The Land Rover Freelander was involved in a sequence of erratic manoeuvres around the town centre.

Eyewitnesses reported that the female driver of the vehicle was sounding the horn, driving on the wrong side of the road and running red lights as she made her way up Church Street to the Priory, before getting out for a few moments.

On her return the vehicle was driven through the locked gates and sped off to Graham Road, where it collided with a Peugeot 107 and was then abandoned in the middle of the road with a smashed windscreen and two badly-damaged wheels.

The driver of the Peugeot, who has asked not to be named, suffered severe whiplash during the collision.

"I was just turning right from Graham Road down by the library when she came out of nowhere and hit me,” she said. "It was terrifying. My car's bashed in and I don't know if it'll be worth repairing it.”

Police found the Freelander driver further down Graham Road and detained her under the Mental Health Act. She was later released without charge. Graham Road was closed for more than an hour while police removed broken glass and the vehicle was towed away.

Mrs Johnson feels it is amazing that no-one was hurt as the remarkable scenes unfolded.

“The driver had their foot down I think and there was no chance of the car stopping,” she said. “I definitely feel that Ellie and I had a lucky escape. Anybody could have been walking past the church gates, or on the pavement in Graham Road where the car ended up.

“It was very scary but both Ellie and I are fine. Ellie has been talking about the incident but she had a good night’s sleep after it happened.”