'Break for chat saved my life'

Five members of staff and three customers were in the Winkworth office when the car ploughed through the window.

Estate agent Carl Burgess told how he had been sitting at a desk directly in front of the 12ft square pane of glass seconds before it was hit. Walking to the other side of the office to talk to a secretary almost certainly saved his life.

Mr Burgess, 30, said: "I had been sitting at the window most of the afternoon, getting on with my work. I got up to talk to the secretary and moments later the whole room went dark.

"The car was at a standstill in the office having smashed through the window at quite some speed. There was a black man in the car and he was just flopped back against the driver's seat - totally out of it. The car engine was still running and it appeared to be spewing out fuel.

"We realised we had to get out of there, so we just left. As we did so, a group of people, some of whom obviously knew the driver, entered. They were shouting and trying to get him out of the car. Then a nurse went in and took his pulse. She said that he should be left undisturbed until the ambulance arrived."

Mr Burgess said he was unable to sleep last night due to shock. "The guy who died could easily have taken me with him. If I hadn't gone to speak to my secretary at that precise moment I wouldn't be alive today, I'm sure of it."

Colleague Richard Croft, 39, said the car missed him by inches. "I found myself standing in the middle of the office with a car rubbing up against me. My legs froze and I couldn't move.

"I could see the man inside but I had no idea he had been shot, none of us were even aware there had been a shooting further down the road until some time afterwards. We overheard a policeman saying he had been hit by a 9mm bullet."