A SHOCKED Gwent pensioner says he is lucky to be alive after a car ploughed through the wall of his cottage and landed just feet from his chair.

Eric Jarman, 91, was sitting in the front room of Burnt House, his 100-year-old cottage, near Usk yesterday morning, when the red Ford Mondeo crashed through the wall.

Mr Jarman, whose son Lyn, 65, was also in the room, cleaning out the fire, said there was an "almighty bang" as the car crashed in to the room at around 7.10am.

Eric Jarman suffered cuts to his legs as bricks flew in to the room, hitting him and smashing a vase in the cottage near the Beaufort Arms on the A472 between Little Mill and Usk.

His son, of Beaufort Crescent, Little Mill, told the Argus: "A brick came flying across the room, I quickly spun round. I didn't know what was happening.

"I was hit on the back by a large part of the wall and my father was also hit by flying debris."

Eric Jarman said: "There was a settee where the car ploughed through but I was sitting at the breakfast table. When it happened I thought a bomb had gone off. I thought 'what the hell has gone wrong?'"

The retired farm labourer added: "I am lucky to be alive. It was just unbelievable - I just don't know how I made it through."

He was treated at Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, and later allowed home but told the Argus the shock came as he was still recovering from the deaths of his wife and other son within three months of each other.

Son Lyn, an employee of DC Hopkins and Sons, building and maintenance contractors, thanked colleagues and friends for their support.

He said: "I can't fault them. They have cleared away all the rubble while the paramedics and firemen were faultless."

Neighbour Peter Wilson, 43, from Beaufort Crescent, said: "I came up the road after hearing a loud crash. The living room floor was covered in big chunks of stone."

The Mondeo's driver - who has not been named but is believed to work at nearby Usk Prison - was treated at Nevill Hall Hospital for shock and released.

Police accident investigators are still piecing together how the crash happened.