A WOMAN was injured when a stolen car struck her vehicle during a high-speed police chase in Weymouth.

Shocked onlookers watched the incident from a nearby polling station as they waited to cast their vote in a council election.

Police were chasing the stolen black Ford Mondeo along Dorchester Road when it sped away and turned in Redlands Caravan Park before pulling out across traffic and smashing into a Toyota minibus.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said the stolen car was substantially damaged in the crash. The driver, a 19-year-old man from Weymouth, sped off from the scene of the crash along Dorchester Road but was followed by police.

He was arrested after he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a garden fence at the junction with Mercery Road, near the Spa Hotel.

The driver of the Toyota, a 43-year-old woman from Weymouth, suffered whiplash and was taken by ambulance to Dorchester County Hospital for treatment and later released.

Eye witnesses inside the caravan park reception, which was acting as a polling station for the Wey Valley by-election, were shocked by the incident.

Councillor David Mannings, who was inside the polling station at the time of the incident, said: "I saw this black car come round the corner at a heck of a pace, right up to us.

"Then it just drove straight out into the middle of the road and smashed into the minibus - it was like a bat out of hell. I was simply amazed, you just don't expect these things to ever happen."

Chris Mather, 40, a builder working on Dorchester Road, said: "We saw a glimpse of the car going past but we certainly heard the noise. He must have had his foot right down to get that speed.

Conservative party candidate for South Dorset Ed Matts, was on his way to the Redlands polling booth when he came across the incident.

He said: "The fact that there was only one car involved is amazing and you have to be thankful that there were no passengers in the minibus when it was hit."