HOMEOWNERS Derek and Clare Bolton were awoken to the sound of a large bang after a speeding car went flying through a window of their country cottage.

The car, a Vauxhall Cavalier believed to have been stolen earlier from Lyneham, was being followed by a police vehicle when the drama happened at Ramsbury at about 6am on Saturday.

The Vauxhall struck a kerb at the Hilldrop Lane T-junction opposite the Boltons' home and, because of the speed that it was travelling, was catapulted into the air.

Fortuitously for its four occupants the airborne car struck one of the windows of Old Forge Cottage rather than its thick stone-walls. The car took off with such force that it cleared the garden between the road and the cottage and ended up embedded in Mr and Mrs Bolton's study.

Its two back seat occupants clambered out through the car's shattered rear window and ran off.

Police arrested the two men remaining inside. The other two were arrested later in the Newbury area after hitching a lift from Ramsbury.

The Boltons were awoken by the sound of the crash and were wondering what had happened when their son Luke, who had arrived only hours earlier on a surprise visit home from university, went into their bedroom and said: "There's a car in the front room."

As Mr Bolton surveyed the damage he said: "It wasn't until Luke came in and said there was a car in one of the downstairs rooms that we realised what had happened."

Mr and Mrs Bolton have lived at the Old Forge previously the Bleeding Horse restaurant for 12 years and he said they had never considered the possibility of a vehicle running out of control at the Hilldrop Lane junction.

Mr Bolton, a retired local government officer, said: "What worries me is that the lane is likely to get a lot busier with all the improvements planned at the sports centre.

"What they are planning at the centre is bound to lead to a big increase in the traffic using the junction."

Luke, 19, who is studying history at the University of London, said: "I heard the skid and then a massive bang with glass shattering."

As he served teas and coffees to firefighters and police, Luke said: "I came home for a surprise visit but I did not expect it to be this big a surprise."

The firefighters stood by as a precaution while Kennet District Council building control officer Graham Haddrell checked the safety of the building.

Mr Haddrell called in Marlborough builders Carty Building Contractors to shore up the ceiling of the room before the badly damaged car was dragged clear by Pewsey recovery firm, Whatleys.

The gaping hole where the window had been previously was boarded up until the cottage is repaired.

Mr Bolton said the room that the car ended up in was used as an office and a large amount of computer equipment had been written off in the crash.

Police said the car had been taken from Lyneham without the knowledge of its owner. Officers in a patrol car at Aldbourne became suspicious of the Vauxhall because of the manner it was being driven in and were following it along Hilldrop Lane when it crashed.

The four men from the car were released on bail while the incident is investigated.