EMERGENCY services rushed to save a woman who became trapped following a crash between two cars and a lorry, north of Winchester

Crews in two fire engines from Winchester and Sutton Scotney raced to cut her free at the incident on the A34 southbound near the junction with the A303 at Bullington Cross.

They were called at 6.38pm last night after a lorry and two cars collided.

Fire crews had to use specialist equipment including spreaders and saws to completely remove the side of the car and free the trapped woman who was a passenger in one of the cars.

Normally firefighters would have cut the roof off but there were concerns for her condition so it was quicker to take off the side.

She was described as having serious head injuries and was taken to hospital by ambulance crews.

The car she was in was completely written off.

The fire service is currently proposing to cut the numbers of firefighters based at Winchester.

Under one proposal the first response would have been two firefighters in a small vehicle who would have been unable to cut the victim free.

Under the second proposal Winchester would have been covered by retained firefighters who potentially would not have been available to respond.

Had that happened firefighters would have had to attend from Andover or Eastleigh, adding at least 10 minutes to the response time.