A man is seriously ill in hospital after his car collided with a 15-tonne Army lorry.

Emergency crews freed four people trapped in the vehicles after the accident on the A422, near the Shenington crossroads, near Banbury, at about 5pm yesterday.

It is believed the lorry careered off the road after the crash, hitting a pole carrying power cables before demolishing a barn.

Four fire engines, a specialist rescue tender, ambulance and police were called out to free the casualties.

Car driver Thomas Wise, 70, from Banbury, was trapped in his badly damaged Citroen for 90 minutes and suffered serious injuries.

Mr Wise, who is married with two children, was taken to Banbury's Horton Hospital where he is in a stable condition in intensive care.

An ambulance spokesman said: "The paramedics worked extremely hard to stabilise him, crawling in the wreckage in the dark and cold, until he was released and taken to The Horton."

The crash happened about five miles north of Banbury on the Banbury to Stratford road.

Two men and a woman in the lorry, all Army personnel, were taken to the Horton Hospital with minor injuries. The lorry was part of a convoy of army vehicles travelling from Bicester to Long Marston.

The road was blocked after the crash and motorists faced lengthy delays as the wreckage was cleared. Diversions were put in place at the Banbury end of the A422 and near Edge Hill but the road was blocked for several hours.

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