A SHOPPER helped rescue a supermarket worker who was pinned against a desk after a car smashed through the window.

The worker was not badly injured but suffered shock, cuts and bruises after the Fiesta crashed through the window of the Waitrose supermarket in the Foss Island store in York on Saturday.

Sam Richards, 42, from Dunnington, who was shopping with his wife Jade and young daughter Poppy, helped hold the car back and shield the assistant from overhanging glass from the broken window.

With other members of the public he then pushed the car away to free the woman while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Mr Richards and his wife Jade said they were lucky not to have been in the path of the car.

Mrs Richards said: “We had let a couple go in front of us as they had less items. We had our daughter with us and I dread to think what would have happened to her had we been a few seconds ahead.

“Fortunately, she was sitting in the seat on the trolley but could have been running around in that area.

“When the car hit, there was a huge bang and just for a second I thought there had been an explosion. It was absolutely terrifying, there was glass everywhere.”

Police are still investigating the crash but it is understood an elderly driver had accidentally reversed the car through the window. The woman was not badly injured, although she was trapped in the car for sometime, and was badly shocked.