AN out-of-control driver ploughed straight through the wall of a building at a primary school.

The black Polo smashed through a wall at Carden Primary School in Brighton at around 5am on Saturday morning.

Preston Circus firefighters were first alerted to the crash after the force of the impact set off the fire alarm at the school in Carden Avenue.

Fire crews alerted the police after finding a car had smashed a hole right through the side of the Carden Youth Office - a small one storey building on the school site.

Resident Ken Hambrook said he was woken at 5.07am by a big bang.

He said: "I thought someone had knocked the bins over until my wife looked out the window and saw the indicator lights of a car.

"At first we thought it must have been parked outside the school until we looked closer and you could see the car was embedded right into the school.

"Another car pulled up and a fella walked out and they seemed to speak to each other before the fella made a call on his mobile phone and disappeared.

"We saw them pull the car out and the front end was all smashed in and the windscreen nearly fractured, that guy was very lucky to walk away from it.

"How he managed to miss those two big trees is unbelievable."

Police officers detained a man aged in his early 20s on suspicion of drunk driving.

Fencing has been put all around the broken wall of the building and a hydraulic prop has been set-up against the wall to keep it secure while an internal doorway has been boarded up to prevent anyone gaining access into the main school building through the hole.