LOS ANGELES – Police searched Thursday for the driver of a car that plowed into the front of a Los Angeles house where a group of mostly elderly people were holding a Bible study and prayer meeting, leaving one person dead and eight injured.
The red sedan left a gaping hole in the home and was almost entirely inside when it came to a rest late Wednesday.
Charry Madduma, who saw the car speeding through the neighbourhood, said it “went airborne” and struck a real estate sign after jumping a curb.
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“I thought she was going to turn down the street, but she couldn’t hit the turn,” Madduma told KABC-TV.
The female driver ran away from the crash and police were looking for her, but the car had no license plates and there was no identification inside, authorities said.
The car was speeding before it slammed into the house, killing one person, police Capt. Leland Sands said.
Angie Villanueva, one of 11 people attending the prayer meeting, said she thought a bomb had gone off.
“So I ducked and I saw so much debris, so much debris, and someone afterward was screaming,” Villanueva told the news station. “They were screaming for help.”
Some of the victims were trapped by the car, and neighbours tried to lift it off them before firefighters arrived.
Seven women and one man ranging in age from their 40s to 80s were injured. Five of them were seriously hurt, city fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said. He had no further details on the injuries.
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