AN elderly couple had a miracle escape yesterday after their automatic car plunged from a car-park roof.

Shoppers watched in horror as the silver Kia Ceed careered out of control on the first-floor of the Ferndown Tesco superstore car-park.

The vehicle collided with a blue Vauxhall Meriva before ploughing through a crash barrier and ending up on a grassy bank 12 feet below.

Emergency services were alerted to the Pennys Walk store at around 3 pm following reports that the automatic vehicle had veered off the car park roof.

While a section of the car park above was cordoned off as a safety measure, firefighters from Ferndown and Redhill used hydraulic cutting gear to remove the roof of the Kia.

An elderly man, who was at the wheel, and his female passenger were released from the wreckage.

A Dorset police spokeswoman stressed that the roof of the vehicle had been removed ‘as a precaution’.

An ambulance attended within four minutes and paramedics treated the occupants of the Kia at the scene. An ambulance conveyed at least one of the casualties to Poole Hospital.

The police spokeswoman added that the occupants of the Kia were not believed to have been seriously injured in the crash. The driver of the Vauxhall involved in the earlier collision, which is registered to a Ferndown man, escaped injury.

No one was available at the Tesco store to comment.