A FAMILY were left thinking a bomb had gone off in their Burnley home in 1982, after a stolen lorry ploughed into their porch, wrote off one of their cars and left another under a heap of stone.

Pauline and Barry Butterworth were woken by the commotion in the early hours of a Saturday morning, and neighbours in Briercliffe Road, who also heard the crash, watched as the driver climbed out of the wagon and ran off down the road.

Mrs Butterworth said: "It was terrifying. The wagon first hit a lamp post outside the house and if it hadn't been for that I think we would've all had it. I'm just grateful that no-one was hurt.

"We spent a great deal of time doing work on the house, if it hadn't been so solid I think it would've been knocked down."