A takeaway restaurant manager was today hailed a hero by firefighters after helping to save five people trapped in their overturned blazing car.

The Vauxhall Cavalier careered out-of-control into Yazz's pizza takeaway restaurant in Oak lane, Manningham, Bradford, last night.

It smashed a plate glass window, showering customers with broken glass, before it rolled over and became a fireball as it hit a red Nissan Sunny parked outside.

Restaurant manager Ayaz Khan rushed out with a fire extinguisher as other people filled buckets of water and managed to put out the blaze before it engulfed the Cavalier. It took firefighters and paramedics nearly 50 minutes to free the two men and three woman from the wreckage.

Sub-officer Eddie Shuttleworth, of Bradford Fire Station, said they owed their lives to Mr Khan's actions.

"By the time we arrived the flames had been put out by this gentleman," he said.

"His actions are worthy of great praise and could well have saved lives."

A man and a woman in the Nissan and two people in the restaurant were also injured in the accident and were taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary in a fleet of ambulances.

Mr Khan said the noise when the Cavalier ploughed into the restaurant was like a bomb going off: "We had customers waiting at the counter and I had just whistled at the gentleman in the red car who was waiting outside with his wife, that his order was ready.

"Then all hell let loose, there was an almighty bang. There were four or five people seriously injured in the car, which was in flames. We doused it down with buckets of water and powder fire extinguishers. It was well alight."

He said he and other helpers were then unable to do much for the stricken occupants of the burning car - later freed by teams of paramedics and firefighters.

"There was a girl in the back, she seemed to be really badly injured."

Today, a West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the 26-year-old driver of the Cavalier was being treated at Leeds General Infirmary for serious injuries while his front seat passenger, a man, aged 22, was in a similar condition at BRI. The three female back seat passengers were in a comfortable condition at BRI.

The two people in the Nissan received slight injuries and two customers in the takeaway were released from BRI after treatment for cuts.

Mr Shuttleworth added: "The extrication of the casualties had to be very methodical and it was 50 minutes before we got the last person out, it was quite a sizeable operation.

"All the casualties appeared to have serious injuries and we treated it as though they had spinal injuries. It was quite a nasty road accident, there's no doubt about that and the Cavalier was quite badly damaged."

He also praised the team work of all three emergency services in rescuing the victims.

Several police were on duty at the crash scene and were involved in clearing a path through the spectators for the emergency vehicles to get in and out, but officers said there were no public order problems. Oak Lane at its junction with Heaton Road was closed off for more than two hours.

Chief Inspector Des Broster, of Toller Lane police, said the Vauxhall was not been involved in any police chase. He asked anyone with information about the crash to call police on (01274) 376459.