Firefighters were called to cut a man from his convertible car following a crash in Ardleigh Green but they found an easier solution.

They responded to reports of a vehicle going into the back of the car outside Ardleigh Green Junior School, in Ardleigh Green Road, at around 11am.

Acting watch manager Bob Green said: “We were called to cut him free but we didn’t have, to believe it or not - it was a convertible and we just used the mechanism.”

An ambulance crew removed the 34-year-old man from the car in a stretcher after he complained of back pains and he was taken to an east London hospital.

Police also attended the scene and closed off the road for up to an hour.