A dad thas told how his two-year-old son was left traumatised when a brick hurled by thugs shattered the windscreen of his car.

Police said it was only by sheer luck that the youngster and his father were not seriously hurt, or even killed, when the half-brick was thrown at the screen from the side of the road.

The brick - the size of a cricket ball - glanced off the double-strength screen but smashed it while the boy was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Dad Simon Berry, 31, of Malyons Place, Basildon, said: ""It cracked the outer layer, but thankfully it held. My two-year-old, Joseph, was in the passenger seat. I dread to think what would have happened if it had gone through the screen."

Simon was driving along Southmayne towards the A13 when the screen of his red Ford Escort estate was struck by a large chunk of rock.

He said: "This half brick, flew at the windscreen from the side of the road."

Simon pulled the estate car over in time to see two or three youths run off.

Scare - Simon Berry with son Joseph

Picture: LUAN MARSHALL

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