A WITNESS said people were scattered like bowling pins when a car hit them - “Like a big game of bowling... but with a car and people”, he said.

Brett Hart, 35, stands trial charged with attempted murder after a confrontation in Elmden Court, Clacton, last August.

A neighbour told the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court he heard shouting from his garden and ventured out into the street.

There, he described seeing people “running riot.”

He said he could see Brett Hart junior running away from “about 20 people who were trying to jump up and down on his head”.

He said he saw Brett Hart senior trying to help his son.

Read more: Clacton teenager describes moment she was run over by car

“At first he’s trying to get his son away from everyone, he’s telling everyone to leave his son alone,” he said.

“He’s pushing people off his kid, it seemed to quiet down a bit and the next thing you know it’s got all heated and it’s kicked off again.”

He said he saw “several people” get struck by a car.

The witness told the jury he couldn’t be sure who was driving as it was dark, the windows were tinted and people were moving around the vehicle.

Describing the moment the car moved forward into a blonde girl, he said: “Next to the silver sevenseater there was a tree, she was about 4ft from that telling everyone to calm down and just leave it.

“All of a sudden the car’s hit her and a few others.

“Like a big game of bowling... but with a car and people.”

He added: “About five minutes later, if that, the car’s hit again.

“She’s sort of bounced up into the air, she’s hit the tree and landed on the floor.

“I thought she’d broken her neck the way she hit it.”

He said the car hit people a total of three times before driving down the road.

“He was trying to save his son from having his head kicked in and he just put his foot down and went,” he said.

“Everyone’s just jumping on the car.

“That blonde girl kept telling everyone to leave it and just go home, but everyone looked like they were up for a fight.”

Hart, 35, denies attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and five counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

Rebecca Grant, 38, of Mendlesham Close, Clacton, denies perverting the course of justice by initially claiming to police she had been the driver of the Volkswagen Golf.

The trial continues.