A TERRIFIED couple leapt from their bed after a car careered into the front wall of their home with a terrifying bang early yesterday morning.After hearing the smash, a shocked Kathleen Calver opened her front room curtains to see the bloodied face of the vehicle's passenger staring back at her.

A TERRIFIED couple leapt from their bed after a car careered into the front wall of their home with a terrifying bang early yesterday morning.

After hearing the smash, a shocked Kathleen Calver opened her front room curtains to see the bloodied face of the vehicle's passenger staring back at her.

The incident unravelled shortly after 3.30am, when Mrs Calver and her husband Peter were asleep at their cottage on the A1065 in Eriswell, near Mildenhall.

A collision between a grey, E-registered Mitsubishi Colt and a lorry happened along the roadway, with the car then spinning into the front wall of the house. The lorry driver fled the scene following the accident, and police are now keen to trace him.

“We were very shaken up and panicky. It did not seem real, especially because we were woken up with the bang,” said Mrs Calver, who was still suffering from shock late yesterday morning.

“For a little while it seemed like a dream. It is just lucky no one was killed, as the house can be replaced, but a life cannot.

“We are still a bit dumb-founded, and keep thinking 'what if?'.

“It all happened so quickly. We heard the bang, and just jumped out of bed straight away. It seemed like the house shook for so long - like it was vibrating with shockwaves.

“I made the mistake of opening the curtains when I went downstairs and a young man's face was up against it. It must have been horrendous for the people in the car to see the fence and house coming towards them.”

It is the third time a vehicle has spun from the road through the Calver's fence in the last 20 years, but the Mitsubishi was the first car to hit the house itself. The couple are now waiting for repair work to be carried out.

Mrs Calver added: “The car took the bricks away at the front, and we have got some cracks, but it appears there is no structural damage.

“The garden is fairly ripped up, as the emergency services had to find a way to get the car out of the wall.”

Police are now appealing for the lorry driver, or anyone else who witnessed the accident, to contact Pc Andrew Smith, at Mildenhall, on 01284 774100.

It is not thought anyone was seriously injured in the incident.