A street in Chatham was evacuated this morning after a paramedic car crashed into a gas pipe.

Firefighters were called to Southill Road at 2am, after the private ambulance vehicle rolled down the hill into a house and snapped the gas pipe.

Homeowner Barbara Robinson said: "I was asleep, I heard the banging on the door - it was the police telling me to evacuate my house.

"They were evacuating all of the road. We all went and stood at the top of the road.

"Then the fire brigade made the scene safe and I was told I could go back inside and that they couldn't start drilling to sort it out because of the time.

"I can't put the gas on until they've been so I won't have any heating.

"It's going to get colder and I haven't got any electric heaters."

A police spokesman said: “We were called out to reports a car had collided with a house at 1.03am and the collision damaged a gas pipe. A number of people were evacuated as a precaution. The fire service and SECAmb also attended.

"Everybody was back in their homes by 2.53am. Nobody is believed to have been injured.”