A WOMAN was seriously injured after an object smashed through the windscreen of the car she was travelling in on the M50 in Herefordshire.

Emergency services were called to junction 2-3, near Upton Bishop at just after 10.35am.

A small metal object – weighing about 2lbs and the size of an ice hockey puck – had smashed through a car windscreen and seriously injured the female passenger.

An ambulance, a paramedic support officer, a community paramedic together with the Midlands Air Ambulance crew from Strensham responding in a rapid response car, attended the scene.

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said it appeared to have been a ‘freak incident’.

“Crews were quickly on scene to treat a front seat passenger in her fifties for ‘significant life changing’ facial injuries," the spokesman said.

“The patient was given immediate medical treatment for her injuries. Pain relief was administered and her condition stabilised before her journey to hospital."

The woman was taken by ambulance to the trauma unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for further assessment and treatment.

The hospital was pre-alerted to the serious condition of the patient and the male driver of the car was uninjured.