AN unmarked police car smashed into a lamppost during a police chase in the early hours of this morning, Sunday.

A reader took these pictures of the aftermath on Grange Avenue in Latchford.

A number of ambulances were also called to the scene following the incident around 12.40am but nobody was seriously hurt.

A nearby resident said: “I thought it was a firework going off and thought to myself ‘That’s loud’.

“And then I saw it was a police car chasing another car and had lost control and hit the lamppost.

“The wheels at the front were hanging off and looking at the damage done it must have been going at some speed.”

A Cheshire Police spokesman says an investigation into the collision is now under way.

He added: "At around 12.40am this morning, Sunday, a Cheshire police car was involved in a road traffic collision on Grange Avenue in Warrington.

"The vehicle, a BMW 330i, had been in pursuit of a suspicious vehicle when it left the carriageway and collided with a lamppost. The occupants of the vehicle sustained only minor injuries – no other vehicles were involved in the collision and no members of the public were hurt."