A father says his family had a lucky escape after a one-and-a-half ton lorry wheel came loose and careered into their home.

Care worker Lee Clarke said his 15-year-old son Sam Allchin was in the front room when the wheel smashed into the wall of the house in Hampden Gardens, South Heighton, near Newhaven.

The impact was so severe it partly demolished the outside wall of the end-of-terrace home and left deep cracks in the building.

The tyre flew off an articulated lorry as it navigated a bend outside the house where Mr Clarke lives with his wife Karen, Sam and his five brothers and sisters.

The tyre bounded up a steep bank and flattened a metal garden fence before smashing into the corner of the house.

Mr Clarke, 40, said: "If the wheel had hit two feet further along it would have gone straight though the front room, probably killing Sam outright and causing untold damage.

"As it is I think we are going to need new external and internal walls."

"The wheel was so big and heavy it took three people just to pick it up and roll it away afterwards."

Mrs Clarke, 37, said: "We heard a great big bang and the wheel came hammering up the bank.

"Then people came running and shouted for us to get out of the house quick so we ran outside.

"We did not go back in until a builder told us it was safe because the whole place could have collapsed around us.

"At first we were shocked, then we started laughing but now when we think about what could have happened, we realise we had a lucky escape.

"Sam was very shocked afterwards and very pale because he was standing there when it happened.

"The lorry driver was also very shocked."

A police investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the incident.