STRUCTURAL engineers have been called in to view a 100-year-old pub after a Jaguar car crashed through one of its walls, sending tables and chairs flying.

The car ended up wedged halfway through the wall of The Plough Inn, on Pelton Lane, near Chester-le-Street, when the driver lost control, hitting another car before bursting through one of the inn's 14in thick walls. Luckily, no-one in the busy pub was injured.

Landlord Edgar Drew was in the pub at the time. He said: "There was a car outside the wall, which took most the impact, luckily. The Jaguar hit that, and ricocheted off and into our wall. Otherwise it would have come right through. Luckily nobody was sitting there. There was a stunned silence then everybody rushed outside to help them."

All four passengers, two of them children, had to be rushed to the University of North Durham hospital by paramedics.

A 12-year-old boy from Chester-le-Street suffered cuts to his face, a nine-year-old boy from Washington was treated for abdominal pains and a 28-year-old Chester-le-Street man suffered a fractured hip and shoulder injuries. The driver, a 51-year-old man from Pelton, sustained slight head injuries.

The two boys were released from hospital on Monday. The driver has also been sent home.

The accident happened on Saturday night, but by the next morning the pub was open for business again. On Monday structural engineers visited the drinking hole, to survey the damage, but Mr Drew was confident the gap in the aptly-named Plough Inn would just need patching up.

A Durham police spokeswoman said they were investigating the incident.