A car jacker caused a scene of horror today as he ploughed into a mum and her friend as they pushed two baby boys in a buggy across a busy road.

Police were in pursuit of the silver Honda Civic, which was taken from its driver by an armed man.

The car was driven away from the scene of the carjacking at high speed and the driver ploughed into at least four pedestrians as he tried to evade police.

A woman, believed to be a friend of the mother, was killed after being flung into a hedge by the force of the impact. The mother and her babies were rushed to hospital and their condition is as yet unknown.

The mum had tried to push her baby sons out of the way of the car but she and her friend and the buggy received the full force of the impact.

The boys were flung from the buggy, one lay close to the dead woman, another was thrown behind a garden wall.

The horrific smash happened at 2.10pm after a driver was forced to leave his car by an armed thief.

The man brandished a weapon as he forced the driver from the car and shot off through South Shields, South Tyneside, after taking the car in the town's busy Western Approach.

After a short distance he sped past a marked police car which set off in pursuit.

The stolen car slammed into two parked cars but the driver continued to evade the police.

Seconds later the car careered into the two women and the children as they crossed the road.

The matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for investigation.

A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: "The incident started at around 2.10pm when the police responded to a report from a member of the public about being thrown out of their car by a man who threatened the motorist with a weapon.

"The Honda Civic was seen by a marked police vehicle and followed for a short distance.

"It is known to have collided with two parked cars and then a number of pedestrians in Horsley Hill Road.

"One pedestrian has died and a number have been injured. One man was arrested at the scene. The IPCC has been informed of the incident.

"Any witnesses should call police as a matter of urgency."

A married mum of two, 34, a residential home carer, said she was on her way to work when she saw paramedics tending to two injured children.

She said: "I reached the Westoe pub and saw the paramedics putting oxygen masks over the faces of two little boys.

"One of the kids was a little baby boy and he was crying and screaming his head off.

"The other one who looked about two years old was lying still.

"Both were close to where the pram was lying by the wall smashed to bits and surrounded by shopping. "The paramedics picked up both the little boys and put them into the ambulance with both of them in oxygen masks and drove off at speed.

"It was horrible, people were saying that these two people had been knocked down."

Darren Johannesen, 34, a plasterer, of Hebburn, South Tyneside, said: "We were standing in the porch when we heard a car tear past, it sounded as though it had a flat tyre.

"We heard a screech then a big bang. It looked like he had hit a bollard, spun around the corner and lost control.

"I ran to an upstairs window of the house we were working in.

"We saw the police escorting some lad away. He was handcuffed and was swaying and his head was all over the place.

"He was fighting the police. They tried to shove him into their car and he was punching out and trying to get away.

"There were five or six police officers that grabbed him and put him down.

"The guy was in his late thirties, maybe 40. He was white but tanned, had black hair and was wearing sunglasses."

Barmaid Katie Shone, 18, lives 50 yards from the accident scene.

She heard the police helicopter hovering overhead and went out to find out what was happening.

She said: "The helicopter had been buzzing around overhead for about half an hour and I had been trying to stick my head out of the window to see what was going on.

"I saw the police had closed off the road. There were four police cars, loads of officers and an upturned double buggy with clothes and shopping scattered all over the street. There was football stuck in the bottom of the buggy.

"When I saw the pram my heart was in my mouth. The chemist who owns a shop nearby was shaking and white as a sheet.

"He said the silver car had hurtled past his shop at high speed and a woman had been pushing the buggy across the street and the car went straight into her.

"It flung her right up in the air and threw the buggy into the wall of a house.

"The woman was left embedded in the bushes lying flat on her back on the other side of the road. You could just see her head and shoulders and she was not moving.

"We don't know what happened to the baby or babies. The pram was catapulted right up into the air.

"The woman did not look like a young mum but more like a grandmother.

"The chemist said he thought there had been three people in the car at the time. It stopped when it hit the buggy and the police cars arrived moments later.

"It did not look like it had been right on his tail but had been following behind and catching up to him.

"He said he thought there had been two police cars involved in the chase.

"The poor chemist and his assistant had to shut up the shop afterwards, they were so shaken up."

Neighbour George Robinson, 88, a retired miner, said: "It happened 15ft from where I was standing gardening.

"I heard this terrific bang. I looked over the hedge and saw a scene I can hardly bare to describe.

"There was a mangled pram and a woman lying on the pavement in a heap unconscious.

"It was a double buggy and I think there were two little ones in it.

"One of her babies was lying close to her on the pavement and I think the other child was lying next to my wall on the other side of the road.

"Within seconds the police and ambulance came and they got round the baby that was lying close to the woman.

"There were three ambulances and 12 or more police officers and six or eight squad cars. They sealed off the whole area.

"The ambulance took the baby away first that was nearest to the mother. Two police officers carried a baby to the ambulance.

"They were a long time with the woman on the pavement and they had a difficult job getting her on a stretcher because she was so badly injured."