THE owners of a Suffolk store which was almost completely destroyed after a car crashed into the front of it say the business will be closed until well after Christmas.

THE owners of a Suffolk store which was almost completely destroyed after a car crashed into the front of it say the business will be closed until well after Christmas.

Thousands of pounds of worth of damage has been caused to The Corner Shop in Leiston after an Alfa Romeo car ploughed through its front window at about 10pm last Thursday.

At the time of the accident police said the building, which is on the corner of High Street and Main Street, had been “totally dismantled”.

The shop has now been cordoned off in order to protect pedestrians and the building has been temporarily shored up and boarded over while the owners and the insurers assess the situation.

Speaking to the EADT yesterday a spokesman for the shop's owner Alison Rowley, who was not available to talk to the newspaper directly, said: “We had a structural engineer out to the shop this morning and we have been told that the structure of the building has been very badly damaged.

“We have been told that the front of the building has got to be taken down including the upper floor.

“The car has completely damaged one of the supporting columns and as a result the building has started sagging and cracking.”

He added: “From a time scale point of view we are certainly not looking at being able to reopen this side of Christmas.

“The accident has done so much damage, not just to the building, but also to the stock inside the shop. We are currently undertaking stocktaking to see just what we have lost.”

A police spokesman said the crash appeared to be an accident and it was unlikely that any further action would be taken against the driver of the Alfa Romeo.