Several pensioners are among five people people hurt after a serious two-vehicle crash on Sheppey this afternoon.

An elderly woman has been flown to hospital after the smash involving a car carrying a group of pensioners in Leysdown at just after midday.

The vehicle overturned and landed in a ditch after a collision with a car believed to be a Jaguar.

Four other people have been taken to hospital by road.

Emergency services were called to the crash near the junction of Leysdown Road and Harty Ferry Road.

A witness said it appeared to involve four elderly people in one car and a man driving a Jaguar. The car that ended up in the ditch overturned before landing upright.

Leysdown Road was closed for about three hours as crash investigators worked at the scene.

Sheppey firefighters cut two women out of a car before they were handed over to paramedics.

The air ambulance took an elderly woman to the William Harvey Hospital, in Ashford, with neck, lower leg and ankle injuries.

Four others have been taken by land ambulance - one to the William Harvey and three to Medway Maritime.

They include a man in his 80s suffering shoulder and chest pain as well as a woman in her 70s suffering from chest pain - believed to be from a seatbelt.

South East Coast Ambulance Service said three ambulances, two paramedic cars and a Hazardous Area Response Team vehicle were sent.

Leysdown Road was closed in both directions until about 3pm.

Speaking at 2pm, Leysdown Parish Councillor Dave Purssord, who runs Bay View Garden Centre in Leysdown Road, said: "There's a car in the ditch.

"A funeral was going from Warden Bay to Bobbing and police let them through, but the problem is they are coming back to the Bay View pub, but they are not going to get back."

He added: "All I heard was a bang, crash and a wallop and I turned round and that was it. It's completely blocked - there's cars everywhere and lorries and buses.

"The schools will be turning out soon - you can't get in or out of Leysdown. Nothing is moving."

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