A heavily-pregnant mother has told how she and her boyfriend escaped with their lives after a car careered into their living room.
Seven-months-pregnant Katie Ashton, 23, was upstairs when the car ended up embedded backwards in the house in Ashford, Kent, at around 9.30pm on Wednesday night.
Her boyfriend Davey Bailey, 22, suffered just a grazed knee after the car crashed just inches from where he was sitting at a desk on his computer.
Luckily, Ms Ashton’s four-year-old daughter was staying at her father’s when the suspected joyriders ploughed into their privately-rented home.
A shaken Ms Ashton said: “If I had been downstairs watching television at the time, I don’t know what would have happened.
“There was a big bang and my curtains blew out of the window. I thought there had been an accident in the road until people shouted for us to get out of the house.
“My partner was on his computer right by the window, and the car missed him by inches. He’s very lucky. He has a grazed knee but that’s it.”
She added: “I rushed downstairs and got told to grab some clothes and get out of the house. There was a horrible smell and I was worried the car would go up in flames.”
Mr Bailey said structural engineers were due to visit to determine whether the house is safe to return to. Meantime, the couple are staying with his mother.
Mr Bailey said: “Lucky doesn’t come close to how I’m feeling. All I remember is hearing a car being revved to the max and then there was a car sitting in my living room.
“I was sat at my desk no more than a foot away at the time the car crashed. The people in the car shouted at us to get out, they got their stuff but didn’t want to stick around.”
He added that they have been in touch with their local authority to see whether they can be allocated emergency accommodation.