A HAMPSHIRE city building has been boarded up after a car smashed into a city centre office.

Police, ambulance and fire services raced to the scene in Southgate Street where a driver was trapped in his vehicle, which was embedded into the side of the building just off Southgate Street.

The road was closed to traffic to allow the emergency vehicles to get close to the scene following the incident on Wednesday.

Emergency services freed the driver from the Mercedes stuck in the side of the three-storey Georgian town house that is adjacent to the Hotel Du Vin.

Eye witness Javier Ibanez was in the office block when the crash happened. "We could hear a car going very quick and heard a crash and saw the car hanging over the edge near the street.

"We saw the car again through the office window and a man still inside then somebody told us to evacuate the building, we can't get back inside."

A spokesman for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that crews from Redbridge, Eastleigh and Winchester had been deployed at 12.38pm after reports that a car had been driven into the ground floor of the building after emerging from a car park nearby.

Specialist firefighters were working to release the driver.

The driver is not thought to be seriously injured, although paramedics had treated a pedestrian at the scene, according to the fire service.

Station manager Mark White, based at Winchester Fire Station, said: “We were called to a car that had been driven into a building, trapping one male occupant inside, an elderly gentleman.

"When the crews arrived we had to stabilize the car as it was in a precarious position bridging the gap between the pavement and the PMC building.

“We stabilized the car and the ambulance crews were in contact with the casualty they checked him over we think he is okay but he is very shaken up.

“Once we stabilized the vehicle further with the help of our ambulance colleagues we helped the male from the vehicle and then he was checked over.”

He said that the casualty had been released and checked over by paramedics. The Mercedes remained stuck in the building.

Meanwhile bus services which use the rote along Southgate Street were warning passengers they were facing delays and diversions as a result of the road closure.

One commuter said: “I wonder how I am going to get home I live in Chandler’s Ford. There is nothing much we can do.”

The building was being checked over by structural engineers.