A teenager was critically injured and two other youths badly hurt after a car ploughed into a wall and burst into flames early today.

The youths, aged 16 to 18, were in a Vauxhall Belmont car which crashed near the Coach and Horses pub, in Chislehampton, near Stadhampton. It is believed the car was stolen.

The two passengers dragged the unconscious driver from the wreckage seconds before the car was engulfed by flames.

The 16-year-old driver, who suffered serious head and pelvic injuries, was fighting for his life at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Chislehampton villager Harry Rayment, 58, was awoken by a loud bang, shortly after 4am.

He said: "I looked out of the window and there was a car on the other side of the road. There was a lot of shouting and people being dragged out of the car. I could hear one shouting: 'Get me out, get me out'.

"When I got downstairs there were three young lads on my driveway. One was in a really bad way - I do not know if he is going to make it." Mr Rayment added: "The car was completely destroyed by fire. If they pulled the unconscious lad out, they must have had a matter of seconds. I did my best to comfort them before calling the police."

Paramedics rushed the seriously injured youth to hospital while firefighters tended to the other youths. One had a suspected broken wrist, the other pelvic injuries.

Fire station officer Trevor Cox said: "It looks like the car hit one wall with some force, bounced across the road and hit another wall. There was a fire in the engine which quickly engulfed the whole car."

"We had to divide our efforts between tending to the injured while waiting another ambulance crew and putting out the fire."

The bend where the crash happened is a known accident blackspot. The road surface was wet at the time.

Police are investigating.

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