Two people had a lucky escape when the vehicle they were travelling in crashed on a north Shropshire road and narrowly avoided plunging down a 20ft drop.

The accident happened on the B5063.

The Renault was prevented from falling down onto a farm building when it hit a tree and was knocked back on to the road.

Firefighters who attended the scene at Palms Hill, near Barkers Green, Wem, said if the vehicle had gone down the drop the occupants would have been killed.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 9.50pm yesterday and the road was closed for almost two hours after the crash because of a fuel spillage from the car, which ended up on its side.

Watch manager Phil Smith, from Wem fire station, said: “There was one vehicle involved, I think there was two occupants. He was a very, very lucky lad.

“He hit the passenger side verge, with quite a thick hedge and he hit a tree which sent him back on the road.

“If he had carried on he was in for a drop of 20ft. He would have ended up on top of a building which is down at the bottom.

“If it had gone over the top it would have been, I’m sure, a fatality. It was his time to be lucky.”

Claire Thomas, spokeswoman for the West Midlands Ambulance Service, said two people were injured and one or both were taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

• Firefighters from Wem took part in a roadshow in the town aimed at younger drivers earlier this month.