TWO parked cars were written off in an early morning crash.

The smash happened on Belmont Road, Astley Bridge, just before 7.30am when neighbours, including the owner of one of the cars, was awoken by the noise of the impact of his vehicle being shunted into wall.

A street pole was also taken out in the crash and debris flung across the normally busy road, which say was neighbours was fortunately quite quiet because of the time of the incident.

Residents rushed out on to the road, terrified that people had been hurt in the crash — but fortunately no pedestrians were involved. There was no one in the parked cars at the time.

Jamil Patel, aged 32, who is a nurse, said: "I heard a loud bang, I looked out of the window and saw my car near the wall of a house.

"The wall wasn't damaged and I rushed out to see if anyone had been hurt. It was quite terrifying to see that, I looked under the car to make sure there was nobody there."

He said he went to check on a man in a van, who fortunately didn't seem to have sustained any serious injuries.

Mr Patel said: "It was a big relief that no one was hurt. The driver was taken to hospital by paramedics."

He added: "Cars are only metal and can be replaced."

Mr Patel said that neighbours came out to help.

He said: "It is a good community here. We were directing traffic and we all helped to clear up the debris. One of my neighbours put the broken pole into his garden.

"We all worked together."

Mr Patel's Toyota Corolla was written off in the smash and so was Uzma Naqi's Polo.

Mrs Naqi runs the local newsagent the Belmont News.

She said: "Neighbours woke me. This is a very busy road and there are normally people going to the bus stop in the morning near to where the crash happened.

"But because it was so early there was nobody about.

"So many people came out to help."

An Astra car, which was also parked, was also damaged in the crash.

Police have been contacted for a response.