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Café customers' lucky escape after runaway car ploughs through window

Diners escaped death by inches after a runaway car ploughed through the front of a busy café full of people eating breakfast.

Ricky Garrett, 67, and his family had just moved to a warmer table when the red Kia Picanto smashed through the front window of the shop and into their former seats.

Multiple tables were smashed and son Aaron, 34, fractured his thumb while pulling his mum Susan, 66, out of the path of the out-of-control car on Thursday.

People were pushed up against walls by the force of the crash - but miraculously all seven customers and two staff members escaped without major injury.

Film footage shows the battered car pressed up against the counter - still with cakes on top - and cups of coffee on nearby tables at the café in south Wales.

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Garrett, a singer, said it was a miracle nobody was killed in the crash which missed a mother with a pram by inches and an elderly man by seconds.

He said: "It was horrendous to be honest. If we hadn't have moved table we would have been dead.

"My son, where he was sat, the car came through and destroyed all the tables.”

Garrett said his wife was standing in front of the counter ready to order their meals.

"All of a sudden, the car came through and destroyed everything,” he said.

"My son screamed. He grabbed my wife and pulled her out of the way. If he hadn't she would have been dead or cut in half.

"I got pushed up against the wall. It was pandemonium. It felt like it happened in slow motion."

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'Lucky to be alive' Ricky Garnett and his family had moved from a table in the path of the runaway car just minutes before it ploughed through the café window (swns)

The couple had met sonn Aaron and his partner Kayleigh for a late breakfast at Victoria's Cafe in Newbridge, Caerphilly, just before midday.

The family were joined by another friend and sat on the table in the path of the car, but moved moments earlier to be closer to a radiator.

The vehicle smashed through the front window and Garrett injured his ribs when he was pushed up against the wall by the moving tables.

His son fractured his thumb, which is now in a cast, pulling mum Susan from the path of the car, and she hurt her shoulder.

He said another woman was injured, and taken to hospital on a stretcher.

The grandfather added: "Moments earlier an older gentleman was sat right in the window and left when he finished his breakfast. He wouldn't be here now otherwise.

"If he hadn't have left, he would have been under that car.

"They have tables outside. Luckily people were sat in a place the car missed them. I think there was a lady with a pushchair or pram.

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Four people were treated at the scene and one taken to hospital (swns)

"Everybody had a lucky escape. Someone was watching over everybody."

Gwent Police were called to the scene and firefighters pulled the car from the shop.

The accident is believed to have happened when an elderly driver, using an automatic vehicle, put his foot on the wrong pedal.

A police spokesperson said: "We received a call at 11.53am reporting a one vehicle collision on Victoria Terrace in Newbridge.

"The vehicle, a Kia Picanto, collided with a café.”

A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said three emergency ambulances, two rapid response vehicles and a Wales Air Ambulance were all sent to the scene.

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