Firefighters cut a severely injured driver out of a 4x4 after it crashed into a lorry in the early hours of this morning.

Police cordoned off Kew Bridge Road as paramedics treated the man, aged in his 40s, following the accident near Kew Bridge station at about 3.30am.

Ian Harrison, watch manager at Richmond fire station, said firefighters helped ambulance crews free the driver, who was the only person in the vehicle.

He said: “He was in the driver side, half in half out the vehicle when we got there. We widened the jeep and got him out with the London Ambulance Service.”

A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service said: “We sent an ambulance crew, a duty officer and a doctor from London Air Ambulance in a car to the scene.

“Our staff treated one patient, a man believed to be in his 40s and took him as a priority to St Mary’s Hospital with chest injuries. The patient had a reduced level of consciousness.”