TWO men were taken to hospital after a horror smash in Ramsbottom.

The silver Mitsubishi was being driven along Ramsbottom Lane from Stubbins towards Ramsbottom when the driver lost control and ploughed into a parked Suzuki car near the junction with Ox Hey Close.

After the crash, at 5.56pm on Sunday, worried neighbours dialled 999 and firefighters based in Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall arrived at the scene.

The Mitsubishi driver managed to free himself from the wreckage suffering from whiplash and cuts and bruising.

However, firefighters could not free the passenger from the vehicle and called for help from a specialist unit based at Leigh Fire Station.

Officers from that unit used hydraulic equipment to cut off the car's roof and the passenger was taken to hospital with a suspected fractured collarbone, though his injuries are not life threatening.

Noone was in the Suzuki. Both cars were written off.

Fire crews said the driver claimed to have hit a pot hole immediately before the crash.

A Ramsbottom Fire Station spokesman said: "We managed to get the roof off the car and used a spineboard to carry the person in the passenger seat out of the vehicle so he could be taken to hospital."