Driver and passengers flee as car ploughs into Smethwick house

A grey car was abandoned after ploughing into the house on the corner of Firs Lane and Arden Road in Smethwick at around 2.30am today.

It is believed the driver and three other occupants fled the scene before firefighters arrived.

Photographs taken at the scene, near Smethwick High Street, showed the crumpled vehicle left next to a hole in the brick wall of an extension to the house.

The hole was later boarded up and the pavement around the wall was cordoned off with fencing and tape.

A West Midlands Fire Service spokesman said: "We were called to a car in collision with a side wall, which was a single-storey side extension.

"It looks like the driver might have absconded from the scene."

Handsworth Fire Station share the photos in a tweet, saying nobody was injured and that they had made the scene safe.

West Midlands Police sent officers to the scene while Sandwell Council sent a structural engineer.

A police spokesman said: "Police were called to Firs Lane in the Smethwick area of Sandwell just before 2.30am this morning after a car went into a house.

"Fortunately there were no injuries to the occupants of the house, the car has been recovered and enquiries continue to trace the four people that left the car.

"Anyone with information is asked to contact police via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight or call 101 anytime, quoting log number 178 of 26 June."

Later the scene was cordoned off for public safety and the hole was covered over with wooden boards.