ELDERLY residents had to be evacuated from their rooms after a car crashed through the wall of their Gerrards Cross home in the early hours of Saturday.

The front porch and an office at The Wyke assisted living complex in Marsham Way were completely destroyed in the accident, just before 1am.

The driver of the car had to be cut out of his vehicle by firefighters and taken to hospital due to his injuries.

But despite the commotion caused by the crash and the recovery work, most of the residents living at the sheltered house scheme slept through it and were none the wiser about what had happened until the morning.

Mandy Doubleday, the duty manager at The Wyke, said: "I was asleep on the third floor and got woken up by a sudden bang.

"All our residents have alarms and one rang from one of the bathrooms. I went down and there was nothing happening in the bathroom, so I thought I'd better check the others just in case.

"I could hear a noise out the front and went to look, and saw a car in our front porch and office.

"It's knocked all the walls down. We can't use the front door - the whole front isn't usable.

"We had to evacuate two rooms under the instructions of the fire brigade because they didn't know how much structural damage it had done.

"The other residents slept through it all, which was quite good."

She added: "I can't praise the ambulance and the fire brigade enough, they were so helpful."

And while things have now returned to normal for the residents, it's a different story for Mrs Doubleday.

She said: "Since Saturday morning every noise makes me jump. One of the ladies came up behind me and I didn't hear her. I didn't half jump. She told me not to be so nervous."