A runaway car transporter careered out of control for 500 metres and smashed into vehicles, bollards and street lights.

The mayhem was caused by a white Mercedes-Benz flatbed lorry yesterday morning.

Four cars were written off and shards of wrecked street furniture, including railings, littered residential Rock Lane in Ore, Hastings.

The cost of the damage is likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Witnesses said it was lucky no one was injured, especially the lorry driver.

One onlooker said: "It looked like the aftermath of a Beirut bomb blast. Cars, bollards, railings and glass were all over the place."

Another said: "Something must have gone seriously wrong for the driver to continue out of control for that distance.

"It just kept on going, no matter what it hit.

"It was extremely fortunate nobody walking on the pavements got caught in its path."

The only apparent injury was to a dog, which needed treatment after it was struck.

The lorry, transporting an H-registration four-wheel-drive vehicle, was involved in a side-on collision with a car at a crossroads at about 8am.

It carried on over the crossroads, hitting one stationary car head-on and two more where they were parked. It eventually came to rest on a grass bank.

Sergeant Paul Masterson, of the Bexhill-based Senlac road policing department, said: "There was an awful lot of damage but no one was injured.

"The driver managed to get out of his cab and speak to us.

"We don't think he was taken ill at the wheel because he seemed fine.

"We are instead looking atthe possibility of some sort of mechanical failure but at this stage it's too early to be definite."

The lorry will be examined by officials from the Department For Transport.

The top end of Rock Lane was sealed off for more than two hours.

Bill Stevens, 43, of Rock Lane, said: "We haven't seen this much drama for years."