POLICE were yesterday (Thursday) hunting for two men who fled the scene after their car rolled over and crashed into a line of giant antique statues outside a Carhampton store, causing over £10,000 worth of damage.

Ambulance and fire crews were called to the scene at 9.30pm on Wednesday evening but the driver and passenger of the overturned Volkswagen Polo had disappeared.

The main A39 road was closed until nearly midnight and nearby houses in the village were without electricity for nearly two hours while Western Power repaired cables damaged in the crash.

Surveying the devastation, Peter Marshall, owner of Chris’s Crackers antique and salvage reclaimation centre, said the car must have been going at “tremendous speed” to cause such massive damage to the animal sculptures, a well-known sight outside his store.

“A lion sculpture from Portugal, one of a pair and weighing at least a ton, has been destroyed and so has a life-size aluminium horse from Mexico,” he said.

“We have lost antique urns and other irreplaceable items, and an antique farm roller weighing half a ton was thrown against a wall and broken.

“It looks like the place has been hit by a bomb. It’s heartbreaking. What happened on Wednesday will cost us at least £10,000.

An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said yesterday: “There were two male occupants in the car who were not injured.

“Police inquiries into the incident are continuing and anyone with information should contact us, quoting reference number 5220041650.”