A Mid Sussex woman told today of the terrifying moment a stolen car smashed through the front of her house and into her lounge.

The car ploughed into the living room in Lucerne Drive, Maidenbower, Crawley, while Merylyn Canty slept upstairs with her husband and three children.

The shocked family rushed downstairs to find a pile of rubble where the front wall used to be and a wrecked Austin Maestro in their front room.

Firefighters initially feared their house would collapse and spent several hours shoring up the house before removing the car.

Building inspectors were due to make a full damage assessment later today.

Mrs Canty, 39, said: "We were fast asleep when we heard this almighty bang and we literally flew out of the bedroom.

"It sounds funny but the first reaction was that it was a bomb and they had already started bombing us.

"We saw the car was in the front room. It took us a while to find our house keys and find our mobiles to phone the police because the phone was not working.

"The driver was still in the car. He was beeping the horn and yelling to us to help him out. He actually climbed out of the passenger window and then he just walked off."

Mrs Canty, who lives with her husband, Kevin, 40, and their three sons aged eight, 14 and 16, said the boys were heavy sleepers and had not realised what was happening.

She said the accident had damaged the family car, wrecked the front room and made her bedroom unusable.

The driver and another man fled down the road after the crash, pursued by neighbours who had initially helped them.

Police later arrested two men and took them for questioning.