A TERRIFIED pensioner had a lucky escape when a car ploughed into her living room – just days after massive renovation work was completed on her £400,000 home in a picture postcard village.

A TERRIFIED pensioner had a lucky escape when a car ploughed into her living room – just days after massive renovation work was completed on her £400,000 home in a picture postcard village.

Building and structural engineers last night visited the property in Lavenham and refused to give police clearance to remove the vehicle embedded in the Elizabethan house, fearing it could collapse as the main beam had been damaged.

Shocked eyewitnesses said it was fortunate no-one was hurt in the accident, caused when a car reversed out of the Swan Inn Hotel, opposite the woman's home in Lady Street.

And it emerged that quick-thinking members of a wedding party were forced to break the front door down after hearing screams from the panic-stricken pensioner.

One resident, who did not to be named, said: "I just heard this massive short sharp bang and I thought someone had let off a firework or rocket at the wedding– I certainly never expected to see a car in a house.

"It seems as if the car is actually holding up the building right now. It is such a shame after the owners put all that time and effort into what was such a beautiful house."

The car crashed into the front of the house at about 2.20pm yesterday afternoon as the pensioner was watching a memorial service marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

A family friend told the EADT: "Because of what she was watching and because it is topical at the moment, she thought a bomb had gone off – the noise was that loud.

"The house is in a terrible mess inside and the beam even started moving when I was in there.

"It was so lucky that she wasn't sitting close to where the car hit or that somebody wasn't walking past at the time. We have been told that she is okay but very badly shaken up."

The woman, who is believed to be in her 80s, was last night being comforted by family members.

It is thought she was trapped in the property after the car crashed into her living room – and was saved when the wedding party, who were celebrating in the Swan, came to her aid.

Best man Andy Fisher said: "We were just in the reception area after the wedding when we heard this big screech of tyres and then a bang.

"A few of us rushed out when we saw the car in the house. The guy driving was a bit shaken up and one of us kicked the door in as we could hear the woman screaming inside.

"We thought at one stage she might be trapped and she was very shaken up. But she was very lucky as if she had been hit by the car, she would have ended up in hospital or worse."

Neighbours last night told the EADT that the massive renovation work on the two adjoining homes was only completed on Friday.

A spokesman for Suffolk police confirmed that Suffolk County Council engineers had said the car could not be moved until this morning, while officials from gas company Transco had also attended the scene.