Two people were taken to hospital after a car crashed into the front of a pub in Deal.

Landlady of The Alma, Hayley Vickers, only realised the incident had taken place when her partner rang her saying she needed to, 'come down, there's a car in the pub!'

The small white vehicle had smashed through brickwork into the darts area in the main part of the venue which is currently closed due to lockdown.

It caused damage to brickwork, a window and internal pipework.

Police attended and the driver and passenger were taken to hospital after yesterday's incident around 8am.

Ms Vickers said: "It woke me up but I thought I'd woken naturally.

"I looked at the time, turned to my partner Dan and told him he needed to get up for work.

"He went down to leave a few minutes later and rang me saying, "Babe, there's a car in the pub, come down".

"I thought he was joking but obviously not!"

Police arranged for recovery of the vehicle within half an hour, while the brewery Enterprise sent representatives from their maintenance team Brighter Homes to secure the area.

Steel acrow supporting devices have been temporarily put in place and broken pipework has been removed.

Ms Vickers is waiting for a structural engineer to assess the damage.

She said: "It was an unfortunate accident.

"I believe the driver came out of Union Road into the path of another car on West Street.

"I think they then panicked, swerved and rather than putting her foot on the brake, pushed down on the accelerator.

"It was really lucky it was such a small car. Had it been a van or even a bigger car the damage would've been much worse."

A spokesman said: "Kent Police was called to a two-car collision in West Street, Deal at 8am on Wednesday.

"Officers attended along with South East Coast Ambulance Service and a man and a woman were taken to a local hospital."

Read more: All the latest news from Deal