Young Ella Varley is lucky to be alive.

The 11-year-old escaped with just cuts and bruises after a car ploughed into her as she tucked into sausage and chips outside Cowling Chippy on Keighley Road, Cowling, on Saturday.

She was trapped underneath the vehicle for 45 minutes and had to be rescued by firefighters.

The car crashed into a drystone wall and through the outside eating area of the fish and chip shop.

“Ella was knocked off her seat but somehow managed to roll over on to her back and avoid the wheels of the car. She was unbelievably lucky,” said her dad, John.

“It was scary and frightening,” said Ella, who started at South Craven School, Cross Hills, earlier this month. “I thought I would be stuck there forever and would die.”

She suffered cuts and bruises on her leg and elbow and also had a bump on the head. She was kept in hospital overnight for observation.

Vikki Walker, who was working behind the counter of the fish and chip shop, said she heard a bang, looked up and saw the car heading towards them.

“There was no time to move out of the way,” she explained. “The girl was sitting outside and she disappeared from sight as the car landed on top of her.

“All hell broke loose. There was screaming, it was just awful. How she got out of that, I’ll never know. She was very lucky. The chair she was sitting on was flattened. It is just amazing.”

Ella’s dog, Ben, a Labrador cross, was tied to a nearby post and also suffered injuries in the crash.

“Ben got hit by two stones when the car hit the wall,” said Ella’s mum, Caroline. “He’s got a lump on his eye and leg. He was limping a bit after the crash.”

A spokesman for Skipton firefighters said crews rescued the girl using air bags and chocks. She was then taken by ambulance to Airedale Hospital, Steeton, but was discharged on Sunday.

He said the two people in the car, believed to be a couple in their 80s, were out of the vehicle by the time crews arrived, although the woman passenger was taken to hospital with cuts to her legs.

The rescue was filmed for the new series of Helicopter Heroes, which follows the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as it goes on its life-saving missions.