AN off licence has been forced to close after a car lost control and ploughed through its window.

Shoppers watched on in horror as the silver Mercedes crashed into Ashingdon Off Licence, in Golden Cross Parade, Rochford, in the middle of the afternoon.

Noone was injured, but the shop was badly damaged.

It remained closed and boarded up yesterday.

Leanne Rose, 32, of Holt Farm Estate, Rochford, told how the glass window shattered across the pavement.

She said: “I was round the corner at the barbers with my two boys and when we come out it had just happened.

“I’m just happy no one was hurt. It could easily have been a very bad accident. The kids from King Edmund School often hang around there.

“It didn’t look like there was any damage to the car, it was just the shop front really as far as I could see.”

Katie Baton, 20, of Ashingdon Road, Rochford, added: “I walked up to my local shops and at this point the car had clearly been removed. There was debris on the floor and there was a police officer outside.”

Zoe Wall, 38, from Barling, said she is unsure how the car ended up in the shop.

She said: “The glass was all smashed but I didn’t get too close.

“I’m very confused as to how it could have happened as there were steps to get up. “Lucky nobody was walking there at the time.

“Poor driver and shop keeper must have been shocked.”

Another resident, who lives above the parade of shops in Golden Cross Parade, was alerted to the crash - which took place at about 2pm on Saturday - by the sound of glass smashing.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “I don’t know how we missed it.

“We heard glass but thought it was coming from the recycling centre.

“There was a loud sound of glass, my husband went down to look and it was all taped off. “

A spokeswoman from Golden Cross Newsagents, in the same row of shops as the off licence, said a similar crash took place five years ago.

She said: “A car hit my shop at the front and completely came in. We had to get all new glass.

“I was here when Saturday’s crash happened. I was inside because I had customers.”

Police, who were spotted at the scene, are not investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

A spokeswoman said: “Police were contacted shortly before 2pm on Saturday, October 1 with reports of a road traffic collision in Golden Cross Parade.

“A silver Mercedes had struck a shop window. No injuries were sustained.”