A hole in a hedge, a smashed up trampoline, branches ripped off trees, tiles torn off roofs, and a car lodged in the roof of a barn.
The small town of Bohmte near the city of in the northwestern state of was the scene of a spectacular accident on Saturday evening which has left two people seriously injured, including a seven-year-old boy.
For as yet unknown reasons, local police reported on Sunday, the car appears to have come off the road at high speed before colliding with a parked vehicle and crashing through a hedge.
On the other side of the hedge, the car then fell around 1.5 meters (five feet) into a lower-lying back garden where it appears to have landed on a trampoline, hitting and injuring the child who was playing on it.
Then, either as a result of the topography of the area or of bouncing off the trampoline, or both, it appears to have been flung further through the air, eventually crashing into the attic of a barn about 3 meters off the ground.
“There was a massive clatter and we just thought: Help! What has happened?” said a local resident. “Then we ran outside and saw the car in the roof.”
The driver of the car, a 42-year-old man, sustained only light injuries, as did three boys aged 11, 12 and 13 in the back seat. A 43-year-old woman in the passenger seat was seriously injured, as was the little boy on the trampoline, who police said was in a life-threatening condition.
Huge rescue operation after car lands in barn roof
After being alerted to the accident, dozens of emergency service personnel attended the scene, including firefighters, police, technical relief staff, 12 ambulance crews and emergency pastoral carers, while two rescue helicopters circled overhead.
“This is clearly an extraordinary deployment,” said a fire brigade spokesman.
The occupants of the car were taken to various local clinics where the driver had blood samples taken and his driving license confiscated. Police said they are ruling out alcohol as a cause of the accident.
The car had to be removed from the barn roof with a crane and was also subsequently impounded by prosecutors.
Photographs and video footage from the scene show a trail destruction left by the car as it hurtled along: branches ripped off trees, tiles torn off roofs, a smashed hedge and a wrecked trampoline.
The entire operation continued until about 4 a.m. local time on Sunday morning.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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