A woman is lucky to be alive after her car crashed six storeys from the top floor of a car park in Melbourne's CBD this morning.
The silver station wagon crashed from the sixth level of the car park just before 9am and fell into Anthony Lane, off Anthony Street, between Elizabeth and Queen streets.
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A local resident, Michael Rockefeller, said "there wasn't just one crash, there was a series of them".
He said "it sounded like a truck crashing".
The car landed wedged at ground level between the walls of the car park and another building, its wheels jutting into the lane. It was badly damaged.
The driver was freed about 30 minutes later after a desperate effort by firefighters and paramedics to cut her from the wreck.
Fire crews cut through the windscreen and roof to give paramedics access to the injured woman.
The car hit the sides of neighbouring buildings on its way down, which police and fire crews believe may have saved her life.
A police officer said it was "a remarkable scene" but said a section of railing hanging from the side of the car park on the sixth floor was still posing a danger to rescue workers.
Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley said the woman suffered a serious cut to the top of her head, and was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.
But he said the woman, thought to be in her 40s, was "incredibly lucky" not to have suffered more serious injuries.
"We believe the car has dropped from the sixth floor, landed with the driver’s side up effectively in a small laneway. There was only about 30 centimetres or so either side of the car," Mr Bentley said.
"Paramedics had to squeeze in between walls and the car to get to the woman to start treating her while she was in the car."
The woman was trapped for about 35 minutes before paramedics and firefighters freed her.
"Her heart rate was initially quite fast and she had low blood pressure so we put a drip in her arm to help stabilise her blood pressure and slow her heart a little bit," Mr Bentley said.
"They’ve also had to manage her pain. She was a little distressed as you would imagine, but she was conscious and talking to the paramedics throughout the efforts to get her out."
Senior Sergeant John Mason said it was too early to pinpoint the cause of the accident.
"We don’t know exactly how the car ended up coming off the sixth floor," he said.
He said the car crashed through the steel beam and cyclone wire barrier to fall from the sixth floor and hit a neighbouring building as it fell to the ground.
"We believe the car has hit the side of the building before falling to the ground. It could contribute as to why she’s in a serious but stable condition and not much worse," he said.
"It’s a pretty remarkable scene."
He said the investigation would consider whether the railings on the upper storeys of the car park were adequate for their job.
The woman was trapped inside the car for 30 minutes. She was conscious and breathing but not talking during the rescue effort.
Peter Pritchard of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said rescue crews worked with paramedics to plan the attempt to free the woman and establish how quickly she needed to be removed.
"We made entry through the windscreen and chopped out a section of the roof to assist the ambulance, who were working on the patient at the time," Senior Station Officer Pritchard said.
"Given the state of the vehicle, it’s quite amazing the situation wasn’t worse."
It was unclear how the car would be removed from the tight space in which it came to rest.
Senior Station Officer Pritchard said using a crane to get it out was an option, but the dangling handrail above would have to be secured before any attempts were made to remove the car.
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