POLICE have this morning issued an appeal for witnesses after a car crash involving two runaway horses near St Agnes left a young Redruth woman fighting for her life.

Two horses died and a father and daughter were hospitalised after the three vehicle crash on the B3277 near the Seven Mile Stone Garage yesterday morning.

The female front seat passenger is in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth with life-threatening injuries. Her father, who was driving the silver Peugeot they were travelling in which appeared to collide directly with a horse, was kept at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro overnight for observation.

The crash which closed the road for about 10 hours from about 7.20am yesterday.

Police said "the three cars involved all appear to have collided with two horses that had strayed onto the road from a nearby field."

One of the horses died at the scene, the other was seriously injured and had to be put down by a vet as a result of the collision which is near to the Seven Mile Stone Garage.

It took crews 15 minutes to get the “time-critical” injured passenger out of the car and a further 10 minutes to get the driver out.

Both were taken to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro by ambulance and the female has since been transferred to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

The female driver of a Matiz, from St Agnes, was treated for shock and the male driver of a black Ford Fiesta, from Newquay, was uninjured.

Initial incident manager from Truro Community Fire Station, Mark Glanville, said the Peugeot had obviously hit one of the horses head-on.

“The bonnet was crushed and it appeared the horse had come up and hit the windscreen which was lying in the laps of the male driver and the female passenger.

“The roof was flat at the front and had concertinaed right back to the back seats.”

It is understood that two accident and emergency nurses on their way to work helped out at the scene before emergency services arrived.

Police are asking any witnesses to contact the serious collisions unit at Camborne by calling 101 quoting log number 108 of January 26.