THERE was traffic chaos this morning in Falmouth after a car ploughed into the front of solicitors firm during rush hour.

At around 8.40am workers at Hine Downing Solicitors in Berkeley Vale were lucky to escape injury as a Renault Megane came down through Brook Street before knocking over road signs and finally coming to an abrupt halt as it hit the wall of Berkeley House.

Fortunately no one was in the office at the time of the crash but staff in another part of the building recalled hearing a loud bang as the car hit the building.

Martin Dean, practice manager at Hine Downing, said: "It is lucky that the office was empty at the time otherwise things could have been very different.

"We have had a surveyor in to check the buildings and after the walls were propped up we were told it was safe to carry on as usual.

"It did disrupt things for a while but we are back to business now and we would like to point out that we do have plenty of parking at the back of the office."

The driver of the car was taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

The car was eventually moved and traffic cleared later in the morning.