GRAVESTONES and a church gate was destroyed after a car smashed into them.

Police attended All Saints Church in Movers Lane, Brightlingsea, shortly after midnight.

Church trustee Lynn Ballard was contacted by the police and went to the church to discover her relatives gravestone had been badly damaged.

In total eight stones were wrecked as well as the Lytch Gate.

Lynn said: "The police called us out, no one else on the list answered the phone so we went about 12.30 am.

"The tow truck came about an hour later and they were amazing.

"The car was on it’s roof and they managed to turn it on it’s side and drag it back out through the smashed up gate.

"The driver had left the scene before the police got there."

"There is so much devastation to the graves, it’s so sad.

"We lost my great, great, great grandparents stone but it missed my great, great grandparents by about 6 inches."