Shoppers watched in horror as a runaway lorry careered across the busy A28, demolished a No Entry sign and smashed into a parked car.

The timber delivery vehicle, which had no driver, came to rest just feet from Stanley George DIY & Building Materials shop in Ashford Road, St Michael’s, Tenterden.

Although the car was damaged and No Entry signpost destroyed, luckily no one was injured.

Andrew Bennett, a sales assistant at Stanley George, said: “I was standing right by the door and if the car had not been parked outside, the lorry would have come straight into the shop.

“I consider myself to be very lucky. The man whose car was damaged had just popped in to our shop to buy some decorating things.

“He had only parked 30 seconds earlier and took it very calmly.”

The driver for Young’s Timber & Builders Merchants had parked his lorry in the bus stop outside St Michael’s Post Office & Stores and fish and chip shop, while he bought some chips.

The handbrake failed and it ran across the road.

Mr Bennett said he had just greeted the customer who had parked outside when they heard car horns.

“We looked out the window and saw the lorry coming backwards towards us,” he said. “The man said ‘he’s going to hit my car’.

“The No Entry post went down like a twig and hit the car, pushing it about two feet and bursting a tyre.

“I rushed outside thinking the lorry driver had been taken ill, pulled the cab door open and there was no one inside which was quite a shock.

“It was like something out of a movie and took a few seconds to realise what was happening – it was quite a bit of excitement for St Michael’s.”

Liz Entwistle, who runs St Michael’s Post Office, said the driver has parked in the bus stop outside and called in for some chips.

“He was standing in the chip shop when someone said to him, ‘isn’t that your lorry going across the road?’,” she said.

“He must have been horrified but there was not a lot he could do. Luckily there was no one trying to cross the road at the time and no traffic.”

Chris Levitt, managing director of Young’s Timber & Builders Merchants, in Hythe Road, Dymchurch, said: “It was a handbrake failure. The driver put on the handbrake but it did not hold.

“The matter is now in the hands of the insurers.”