A COUPLE had a lucky escape after a car smashed into their home.

Ainars Puzulis and girlfriend Zane Krigere had been in their flat less than three months when drama unfolded on their doorstep last night as a Vauxhall Zafira mounted the pavement, smashed through a concrete wall and into the front room.

Fortunately they and their upstairs neighbours escaped unharmed.

Police, firefighters from St Mary’s and ambulance all attended the scene where the silver car was lodged into the front of the semi-detached house on Burlington Road at the junction with Wilton Avenue.

The impact, at around 7.30pm, left piles of bricks scattered around the house and pavement.

The front of the terraced property had been badly damaged with the bay window at an angle and with a large crack down one side.

Neighbours gathered around the scene as firefighters assessed the situation.

Ainars, 30, told how he was in the kitchen at the time.

“I heard a boom and glass crashing and vibrations.

“I got a feeling that something had crashed into the wall but I didn’t know how serious.

“I looked through the door. I could see that the glass is broken, it was on the carpet and there’s gaps in the wall.

“I saw at the window the car and then I understood what had happened.”

Ainars, who works in catering, told how if it had been a few hours later the pair would have been asleep in that room.

“As long as okay and nothing serious has happened to anyone that’s the main thing,” he said.

“I thought thank God I wasn’t close to that and I wasn’t in the bedroom.

“It could have been a lot worse.”

Zane, 23, was out at the time working at a nearby restaurant and returned to find the devastation.

She was too upset to speak to the Echo.

A couple living in the flat above were also in at the time.

The 31-year-old man said: “I just felt the house shaking and I checked out the window and I saw the car there.”

The 23-year-old woman said: “I just went downstairs because we thought somebody was injured.

“You don’t feel like it’s going to happen to you, it happens to someone else.”

Witnesses believed there were three men in the vehicle and they were treated in the ambulance but did not appear seriously hurt.

None of the occupants were allowed back into the affected property.

Sgt Richard Grant, from Totton Roads Policing Unit, said no-one was hurt and two men were helping police with their enquiries.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Firefighter and incident commander Watch Manager Stuart Vince said the house had been inspected by a structural engineer and the fire service’s urban search and rescue advisor who both agreed it was unsafe.

He said the house occupants would be rehoused by the fire service emergency support vehicle.

The scene was to be fenced off overnight, but he said there was not thought to be any danger of collapse.