Restaurant owner thought 'bomb had gone off' as car smashed through front window

The owner of a Chinese restaurant where a car ploughed through the front window says he thought a 'bomb had gone off' or there had been an earthquake.

A Ford Fiesta smashed into The Royal Phoenix in Oswaldtwistle, Lancs at around 2:30am in the early hours of Tuesday (August 13) leaving a trail of destruction. The woman who runs it says it is the third time they have been crashed into in the last ten years.

"It was a sudden, really loud bang," San Tse told Lancs Live. "Initially, everyone thought it was a bomb because of the shake of the building, or we thought it was an earthquake.

READ MORE: 'Someone came storming in, masked up, with a gun' - Shock as armed robber bursts into Halifax bank

"We weren't really sure what it was, but we weren't expecting a crash at all. You can see in the CCTV footage, literally seconds from the car crashing in to the front, a member of staff was there to check and have a look at the driver.

"Due to all the rubble, he wasn't able to get to the driver. He walks out of the bar and goes out of the back of the building to get to the front and that only takes a few seconds, but by the time he's ran round to the front, the driver and the passenger ran out of the car.

"Both of the doors were undamaged, it's only the front of the car that was damaged, so they were unable to unlock the doors and get out."

Although the driver did cause significant damage to the front of the restaurant, San says they are "extremely lucky" as no one was hurt.

San said there was another crash in 2019, and another in 2014 before she took over. "With this [incident], the speed must have been much higher because they crashed straight through the metal railing in front of the building and into our bar."

"So there's