A MAN had to be cut free from his car today after a four-vehicle accident on the Thanet Way near Whitstable.

Firefighters spent 20 minutes using cutting equipment to peel back the roof of the Ford Focus and take off the side before using a spinal board to carry the driver out.

He and two other people were taken by ambulance to Kent and Canterbury Hospital but their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

The road was closed for more than three hours, causing lengthy delays. It is thought that one car clipped another and spun round before being hit by a van and another car.

A fire brigade spokesman said the driver of the Focus was very lucky. "The air bags deployed so he escaped serious injury," he said. "If there had been rear passengers they would have been very badly hurt because the back of the car folded up completely."