An man whose vehicle was rammed by suspected drug dealers as they fled police in the De Beauvoir conservation area, had to be cut out of his car by a score of emergency workers tonight.

At around 5pm plain clothes officers tried to stop two young men driving a Mini Cooper in Englefield Road, but they made off.

Their car smashed into two cars belonging to members of the public and a police car before hitting a signpost, just yards away at the junction with Kingsland High Street.

Two fire engines, a high dependency unit ambulance, two other ambulances and several police cars attended the scene, where a score of emergency workers worked for over an hour to cut the trapped man , aged 62, out of his white car.

As he was suffering suspected back injuries, they cut the roof off before they were able to place him on a stretcher to take him to the Royal London Hospital.

The driver of the second vehicle escaped unharmed.

A woman who had just arrived in the borough to visit her daughter and grandson had parked her car nearby as the scene unfolded before her eyes.

“All I saw was the two cars at the end of the road pull the mini into the lamp post, smoke came out of the mini, they got their truncheons out and they pulled two young blokes out through the windows, and got them handcuffed,” she said.

“There was just one bang after another and the mini was forced into the lamppost, he couldn’t go anywhere else,” she added.

A quantity of suspected class A drugs was found in the Mini Cooper and the occupants, two men aged in their mid-20s, were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and dangerous driving.

Both were taken to hospital as a precaution before they were taken into custody.

Traffic officers who attended scene will investigate the collision.