An 18-year-old has died and two others have been seriously injured after a car crashed into a house.

Hertfordshire Police was called to Cromwell Way, Royston, at about 01:00 BST after reports a vehicle had come off the A505 and hit a residential property.

The people inside the house were not injured, police added.

Emergency services remained at the scene while the vehicle was recovered and a structural engineer assessed the damage to the house.

Police said there were three males in the car and all were seriously injured, before one was later pronounced dead.

Sue Brew, 58, lives in the detached house next door and was woken up by the sound of a “vey loud bang”.

She opened her window to see flames and then quickly rushed outside to help, where “the lad in the front” of the car told her there had been two others in the vehicle with him.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” the neighbour said.

Another neighbour, George Mickleburgh, 31, lives three doors down from where the crash took place and was woken up by “a massive bang”.

“It was the sort of sound, where as soon as I heard it, I knew something serious had happened.”

He ran outside to see if he could help where he saw three people “not in a good way”.

“I saw the car on its side, someone outside the car, someone was getting out the car – there was a lot of people out on the street that came out to help.”

Ruth Brown, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Hertfordshire County Council who represents Royston East and Ermine, said: “I’ve not been aware of a problem on this stretch of road before, but this is obviously a tragic incident that’s affected many people.

“We don’t know the cause yet and it will be subject of a police investigation, but once this cause is established, we will look at whether any improvements are needed to the highways.”