A TEENAGER suffered serious injuries when her car was in collision with a police vehicle answering a 999 call.

Police have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash and statements were being taken from the officers involved.

The roof was cut off the 18-year-old girl's Toyota Carina to free her after last night's accident in St Giles, Oxford, where Banbury Road merges with Woodstock Road.

The police fast response vehicle, a Vauxhall Omega, was responding to an emergency when it was involved in the collision with the Toyota at 7.40pm.

The teenager, from the Oxford area, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital and her condition was today described as comfortable.

She will be named once relatives have been told of the accident. It was thought two policemen in the car suffered minor injuries.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "An accident occurred when a marked police Vauxhall Omega, which was responding to an immediate commitment, was involved in a collision with a Toyota Carina, driven by a local woman. The circumstances surrounding the incident is now being investigated."

A spokesman for Oxfordshire Ambulance Service said: "An 18-year-old woman suffered serious injuries.

"Two men aged 35 and 38 also needed treatment but their injuries were much less serious."

Philip Watson, 45, from north Oxford, saw the aftermath of the crash. He said: "It was horrific. I have never seen anything quite like it."

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