1 January 2012 Last updated at 05:38 ET

Car drops on to railway line in front of steam train

The car dropped on to the railway line after colliding with another vehicle

Three people have escaped from a car after it crashed on a railway bridge and fell in front of a steam train travelling on the track below.

The car dropped 6m (20ft) on to the railway line in Southam, Cheltenham, at 13:30 GMT on Saturday after a collision which involved a second car.

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service said a steam train had "managed to stop short of the vehicle".

All three people managed to get out of the car and no injuries were reported.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Early reports indicated that two vehicles had collided on the bridge, resulting in one vehicle dropping from the road to the railway track below."

"A steam train that was travelling on the track at the time had managed to stop short of the vehicle. All three occupants had managed to get out of the vehicle safely," he added.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (GWR) runs along a part of the former Great Western Railway's mainline from Birmingham to Cheltenham, via Stratford-upon-Avon.

The line closed in 1976 but by 1984 heritage trains began running along a short part of the line between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse.