A family was left counting the costs after a car careered into their furniture shop before the occupants of the vehicle fled.

The emergency services were called to Cowley Road at the junction with Bullingdon Road and Chapel Street shortly after 7am on Sunday to reports that a vehicle had hit The Furniture Store.

The silver Peugeot 207 hit a lamp post on the pavement outside Tesco Metro before crashing into The Furniture Store.

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Eyewitnesses said the two people inside the car, a man and a woman, got out, retrieved some belongings and then left the scene.

Emergency services including police and firefighters cordoned off Cowley Road and removed the vehicle from the front of the store, where a brick pillar and the glass front were destroyed.

Omar Nawaz, 35, and brother Kasim Nawaz, 23, help to run the 30-year-old store owned by their parents Christine Kannan and Mohammed Nawaz.

Omar said: "This is a big shock for us all and we are now counting the cost.

"It will cost tens of thousands of pounds on the insurance to repair the shop and we will probably be closed for at least a month.

"Cowley Road is a 20mph zone but the car must have been going a lot faster than that - it has knocked down a metal lamp post on the pavement outside Tesco before hitting our shop."

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He added: "There were no skid marks so it doesn't look like there has been any attempt to brake.

"It's lucky there were no pedestrians around at the time because it was early on a Sunday morning - it if had been a weekday it could have been very different.

"Hopefully the two people in the car have not been seriously hurt.

"Our main concern now is to ensure that the building is safe and secure."

Ms Kannan added: "I found out about 7.30 and got here as soon as I could.

"Tesco workers said a guy and a girl got out of the car and then walked off - they must have been injured in some way because the airbags went off."

Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Lucy Billen said: "We were called at 7.19am to a report that a silver Peugeot 207 had been driven into a furniture shop on Cowley Road near the junction with Chapel Street.

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"It was also reported that two occupants of the vehicle, a man and a woman, got out and made off on foot, leaving the vehicle.

"There are no reports of any injuries at this stage.

"The building is currently being assessed by a structural engineer.

"Cowley Rd is currently closed at that area as emergency services deal with the incident."

The road was partly reopened about 10am after the car was towed away but work is expected to take place at the scene throughout the delay so there could be further delays.

Oxford Mail:

Oxfordshire Fire Service spokesman Simon Belcher said 20 firefighters helped to remove the car from the shop before it was towed away.

He said: "The car hit the lamp post outside Tesco Metro before hitting the furniture store, knocking over a brick pillar on the corner of the store, and this made it unsafe.

"The occupants of the car fled the scene and police are looking for them to make sure they have not been hurt.

"We secured the building using props - it was quite an impact."

South Central Ambulance Service spokeswoman Michelle Archer said staff were not called.

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