A shocked mum and her three young children had a narrow escape after a car smashed through their garden wall and careered towards their house.

Tina Clark, 35, was in the kitchen of their home at Grasmere Gardens, Frinton, when the car shot through the wall, coming to a halt yards from a newly-built swimming pool.

The driver of black Ford Escort was travelling along Edenside when he was involved in a collision with a car which pulled out of Grasmere Gardens.

The Ford Escort car was turned in the opposite direction and went through the wall.

Mrs Clark said: "There was just this almighty bang - it was like a bomb going off. We thought it was bin Laden.

"Just a few feet more and he would have come through the lounge wall or ended up in the pool. We are lucky to be alive."

Both drivers involved in Tuesday's accident escaped serious injury.

Builder Nigel Clark, 31, was not at home at the time of the crash but said they had only finished work on the pool and new wall at the weekend.

Shocked - Tina Clark and children Tia and Ali look at their damaged wall

Picture: TERRY WEEDEN

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.