A CAB driver was taken to hospital this morning after his taxi smashed into a landmark in a County Durham market town.

Police and paramedics were called to the Market Cross in Barnard Castle after a blue Skoda Octavia cab, owned by Hodgson's Private Hire, came off the road and collided with a stone wall shortly before 11am.

Witnesses were left bemused as to the cause of the accident, as the car, which was coming from Newgate, seemed to be on the wrong side of the road.

The male driver of the car, which was carrying a passenger at the time of the accident, was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

His female customer was taken to hospital as a precaution by her daughter.

Traffic was held up in the town centre for half-an-hour as police investigated the crash.

The condition of the taxi driver is still unknown, as is the extent of damage to the Market Cross.

Nobody from Hodgson's Private Hire was available for comment.