A grey Fiat smashed into the control box at around 1.30am and knocked out all the nearby traffic lights at the junction in Lincoln Road near West Street.

Vicky Kingswood, of Lincoln Road, was walking down West Street after a night out with her husband, Andy, and sister, Lisa Mercy, when they heard a loud crash nearby.

She said: "We thought two cars had crashed head on so we ran thinking people were hurt."

David Roark, who lives right next to the crash site on Lincoln Road, was woken up by the noise of the crash.

He said: "I seen two of them open the doors and run away and then the third one got out, got back in again, reversed, then got out and also ran off."

As reported on our website on Monday, police later arrested a 16-year-old boy at a house in Horncastle on suspicion of taking a car without consent and crashing into the control box.

He was taken to Boston Police Station where he was interviewed and subsequently released on bail pending further enquiries.