Patio slab thrown through car windscreen on A467 at Risca

A motorist believes he narrowly escaped being killed after part of a patio slab smashed through his windscreen while he was driving at 70mph.

Ian Pugh, 39, was on the A467 near Risca, Caerphilly county, when the chunk of slab broke through the glass.

"It was terrifying. If it was a couple inches to the right it could have been a fatality," he said.

Gwent Police said it was called at about 20:45 GMT on 29 October and investigations were ongoing.

Mr Pugh, an online health and safety coordinator, was on his way home to Cwmcarn from Newport when he saw the object travelling straight towards his face.

He said he instinctively ducked and was hit on the shoulder by the 1.5in-thick chunk of slab.

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"There was nobody else around so I can only think it was thrown from the edge of the road," he said.

He added that it was "lucky" he was the only person in the car because the slab split into three parts and left him "showered with glass".

Ian Pugh said he was lucky he had insurance as the windscreen needed replacing

He added: "My beard was full of glass and then I noticed, a couple of days later, I had a little bit of a shard of glass in my top lip."

He believes a group of people has been standing on the road "with nothing better to do" and "not realising what sort of damage they could be causing".

Mr Pugh said he was "relieved" he came out relatively unscathed, but was "nervous about going up and down that part of the road".

Mr Pugh said he found three pieces of the slab in his car after it split on impact

Mr Pugh uploaded a video of the damage on TikTok and said he had 10 people contacting him to say they have had similar experiences on the same road.

One woman who commented on Mr Pugh's post said she was in the car behind his vehicle when the incident happened.

"I was behind and must have had the debris hit me - or maybe something else thrown as it hit both sides and front bumper," she said.

"My car was done at the exact same spot the day before," another person posted.

"Slab through windscreen - luckily only minor cuts to face and hand from the glass shards."

Several other people revealed their cars had also been damaged by heavy items thrown on to the same section of the A467 between the Risca roundabout and the turn off for Sirhowy Valley Country Park.

Additional reporting by Nathan Bevan.