Terrified pedestrians dived out of the way as two drivers sped around a mini roundabout in a town centre this afternoon.

Eye witnesses, including elderly shoppers and young families, watched in horror as the men in a black and a grey BMW ran amok around Livingstone Circus at about 2pm yesterday.

Mum-of-four Bethany Marrable was hanging curtains at her home in nearby Gillingham Road when she heard a loud screeching of brakes and shouting.

Mrs Marrable, 25, said: "I saw the two cars drag racing around the roundabout side by side, going about 30 miles per hour. At one point an elderly woman outside a charity shop jumped behind a lamppost. It was packed, but thankfully no other cars were involved.

"I was running late to pick up my two-year-old from the childminder. If I had been on time I would have been outside there and God knows what could have happened. Everyone was panicking. It could have been carnage."

Mrs Marrable, a seamstress, said the vehicles came from the Barnsole Road direction and after one of them crashed into a post one of the drivers jumped into the other car and they fled.

She described the men as white and both in their 20s. Police are at the scene taking statements from onlookers.

Police spokesman James Walker said: "Police were called to a single vehicle collision in Franklin Road, Gillingham, at 2.01pm on Friday, October, 26.

"The vehicle is reported to have made contact with a lamppost before the occupant decamped.

"This occupant is then reported to have got into another vehicle before leaving the scene.

"Officers have attended the scene and the vehicle has been recovered.

"Inquiries to locate the driver of the abandoned vehicle remain ongoing.