Car owners were left fuming after several of their vehicles were damaged by a driver who left a trail of destruction along an Oxford street.

A bumper torn off a parked car lies in the road, with the white BMW at the centre of the incident beyond it

Half-a-dozen cars parked in Spencer Crescent, Rose Hill, were damaged, with at least one a write-off, in the incident at about 1.30am on Saturday.

Residents said they saw a white BMW 5-series car, which was being followed by a police car, cause the damage. A man tried to run off, but was caught by officers.

One woman, who did not want to be named, but who watched what happened from her bedroom window, said she heard a crash further up the road, which resulted in two cars being damaged.

She then saw the car clip her neighbour's Ford Mondeo, before losing control and smashing into a Vauxhall Vectra, which shunted into two other cars.

Audrey Seward, whose Mondeo was badly scraped and dented, said she was "disgusted" at what had happened.

Elizabeth Perks, whose Vauxhall Corsa was the last car that was hit, is still waiting to hear whether her vehicle, which ended up in the middle of the road, would be written off or not. Another neighbour had her car -- which was shunted 14ft from where it had been parked -- written-off.

Dave Richards, who took photographs of the damage, said crowds of neighbours who heard the collisions gathered outside their homes to see what was happening.

He said moments before the crash, he had heard cars being raced around the estate.

"I then heard the kind of screech of tyres when they lock and the car skids. Then there was an almighty crash," he said.

Mr Richards, who said he had seen the car being driven along the road before, said joyriding in the area was a source of frustration for residents and had become more of a problem again recently.

He said: "The streets in our estate are wide open for this kind of thing because there is no traffic calming."

The damaged cars were taken away by recovery vehicles.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said the driver of the BMW, a man in his 30s, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington, but his injuries were not thought to be serious.

She said the incident was being investigated, and the BMW had been recovered by police as evidence.