A ROYAL Marine had a miracle escape after a rock was dropped from a bridge on to his car on a busy motorway.

Corporal AJ Orchard from Bournemouth was driving at night along the M3 under the A27 bridge at Chilworth when suddenly a three-inch by four-inch rock smashed through the sunroof of his car.

Amazingly AJ, 27, from Charminster, managed to escape unscathed from his ordeal.

AJ said: “It could have easily killed us.

“I was overtaking a lorry and it came out of nowhere and the roof literally shattered and glass was everywhere inside.”

Fortunately AJ kept his cool and managed to avoid swerving his Renault Megane, which he puts down to serving in the Afghanistan war.

He said: “We pulled over and my missus found the stone in the back.

“It was the size of two fists and too big to have been a chip off the road. I realised it must have been thrown.

“Luckily we had the sunroof curtain over and it caught most of the glass.

“Imagine if it had come through the windscreen at 70mph, or if it had come through the sunroof and knocked me out and I had gone out of control and crashed – it could have caused a pile-up.

“I don’t know what was going through the head of whoever did this.

“If you are going to throw a rock like that off a bridge you must know it could do damage.”

A police investigation is now underway to hunt down the person responsible.

A police spokesman said: “It is highly dangerous and it could cause a serious accident. Anyone who does it will also find themselves having to face the consequences of their actions.”