THE FAMILY of a woman seriously injured when a stolen car driven by a teenager crashed into her today spoke about the full extent of her injuries.

Deborah Stephenson, 34, and her mother Margaret Marsden, 57, were heading for Empire Bingo, in Blackburn Road, Accrington, on Thursday.

Mrs Stephenson pushed her mother out of the way as the stolen red Peugeot 206 collided with another vehicle before mounting the pavement.

She was rushed to Blackburn Royal Infirmary and underwent a five-hour operation. Surgeons inserted a metal plate and two pins into her right leg in addition to taking a bone graft from her thigh to reconstruct the ankle. She was today due to undergo further surgery.

Her aunt, Winn Ingham, of Heywood Road, said X-rays had shown the ankle was shattered. Mrs Ingham, 53, said: "We asked if she would be able to walk again and the simple answer was they didn't yet know.

Mrs Stephenson, of Burnley Road, Accrington, mum to nine-year-old James, and Mrs Marsden, of Haywood Close, Accrington, are also due to have trauma counselling.

Mrs Marsden was treated for shock and severe bruising to both legs and later released from hospital. Four more people were injured in the collision at the junction of Blackburn Road and Oxford Street.

The Peugeot collided with a Citroen Picasso driven by Louis Kennedy, 39, of Whalley Road, whose passenger Nora Cranny, 55, of Whalley Road, Clayton-le-Moors, was also taken to hospital with a suspected chest fracture.

A 15-year-old was arrested following the collision and has been released on police bail while inquiries continue.

Sergeant Stuart Isherwood said: "This is a very serious incident which we are investigating to the full."