SCHOOL children had a lucky escape when a car almost crashed into their playground after the handbrake failed.

As parents dropped their children off at Littledean CofE Primary School on Tuesday morning a green Suzuki car started rolling off.

It then went down a bank before crashing into a fence surrounding the playground.

The car belongs to a mum who had stopped for a moment to see her child into school.

As she spotted her car rolling away she tried to climb back in and stop it but it was moving too fast.

Co-headteacher Hayley Barwick said the owner of the car had been left quite shaken, but was uninjured.

She said. "It was quite a drama for a Tuesday morning – I've worked here for 12 years and we've never had anything like this happen before.

"It would not have been a good situation in the worst case scenario but there was no one in the playground at the time.

"Even if the car had made it through the bushes and the fence it would have been stopped by a shed which was just beyond them.

"The lady was very upset but we gave her a cup of tea and looked after her.

"It was a very strange thing to have happened because the handbrake of the car was on. It was not something that could have been foreseen."

One fire crew from Cinderford were called to the scene in Oak Way at around 8.50am.

They used a winch on their fire engine to pull the car back up into the school car park.