A ROAD was closed for more than three hours after a vehicle veered into a shop.

The Land Rover hit the Londis convenience store, at the corner of Swan Lane and Stock Road, in Stock, at 10am yesterday and couldn’t be moved until a surveyor had carried out safety checks on the stability of the building.

Shop owner Lesley Pervez said: “We were in the shop and felt the whole building shudder – my husband thought it was an earthquake.

“We ran outside immediately and found the car had hit the corner of the shop.”

The man driving the Land Rover was taken to hospital with minor leg injuries and Essex Police closed the road in both directions between The Square and Mill Road.

Mrs Pervez said the collision had caused large cracks in the shop’s wall, which spread to their flat upstairs. They had to close the shop.

Cupboards in the post office section of the shop fell down and their contents spilled over the floor.

Mrs Pervez said she did not yet know how much damage had been caused or how much repairs would cost.

She added: “I’m just glad nobody was passing and got injured. If it had been a weekday, schoolchildren might have been around.”

A police officer at the scene said the building was unstable.