A BMW smashed into the front of a Hornchurch salon on Wednesday evening - yards from the area where children have their hair cut.

The incident took place around 7.30pm at the Hair Sanctuary, Hornchurch Road, which - luckily for staff and customers - was closed at the time.

Owner Helen Chapman said this morning that the car’s front wheel came through the front of the salon – after knocking down two metal bollards.

She said: “Thank God no one was in here, it’s just carnage. Thank God it wasn’t today (Thursday) because we would have been open.

“If we had been in here when it happened we would have been badly injured if not killed.”

She added that a member of staff had left the shop just minutes before the incident occurred.

The salon is currently closed with customers’ appointments cancelled and the window has been boarded up. It will need repair work before it can open again.

Helen said: “There’s too much glass everywhere, right up to the other end of the salon.

“The retail stands were thrown right from one end of the shop to the other.

“It’s bad but we’ve still got to look at the positives, at least no one was hurt.”

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said: “Our staff treated one patient, reported to be a 35-year-old man for a head injury and an arm injury.

“He was then taken to Queen’s Hospital in Romford.”

Police and the fire brigade also attended the incident.