YOUNGSTERS escaped injury after a car hit the wall of their nursery.

It happened this afternoon (Friday February 22) at the First Steps Nursery, Medway, Great Lumley, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

The nursery has places for 33 children aged three months to ten years old and a staff of five, but it is not known how many people were in the building.

It is believed that a small black car driven by an elderly woman hit the building, damaging brickwork, when a manoeuvre went wrong.

Parent Jonathan Swindler was called to collect his two sons after the accident.

He told BBC Radio Newcastle that an elderly couple were in the car.

“Apparently what happened is this woman’s foot slipped off , went onto the accelerator as she was trying  to do a three-point turn, I understand, and ploughed into the nursery, but luckily everyone’s OK.

“I looked at the car and the bonnet was fairly damaged, the bonnet wasn’t in a great state, and various bricks to the front of the building were damaged.

“What was scary was that a lot of the children, including my two sons, were inside the room at the time it happened.

“It must have been a fair bang and it must have scared the children a fair bit but everyone’s OK.”

Nursery owner Alison Crossling said she did not want to comment as she was trying to ring parents and was awaiting a structural engineer to assess the damage.

But she confirmed that none of the children had been hurt.