Pub-goers witness car somersault

The car landed yards from a children's play area and hen shed.

A teenager escaped serious injury when his car hit flood water and flipped over a pub hedge, landing on its roof.

Joe Warren, 18, ended up in the garden of the Greyhound Inn at Pope's Hill in the Forest of Dean, just yards from a children's play area and hen shed.

He was helped out of his vehicle by regulars who witnessed the accident from the pub's outdoor smoking shelter.

Mr Warren, who escaped with minor bruises, said he was "gutted" because he had only had the car for a week.

"I wasn't going fast," he said.

"I just came over the rise and hit the water and I felt the steering go. Next thing I know I'm going through the hedge."

Landlord Tony Lorimer said: "We're very relieved.

"Joe was very lucky and it could have been much worse. He could have been badly hurt.

"The car landed on its roof only yards from our hen-houses - any further and Joe would have been swimming away in the stream."