The Duke of Edinburgh had to climb from the wreckage of his car following a crash in which his Land Rover overturned on its side.

The 97-year-old was on Thursday afternoon said to look distraught and “quite shaken” after the accident, which left two other people in hospital with minor injuries.

He was recovering at Sandringham with the Queen by his side, after being checked by a doctor as a precaution and found to have no injuries.

Police confirmed that both the Duke and a female driver had been breathalysed at the scene and had not been drinking. A witness said the Queen’s husband appeared “shocked and shaken” after the crash, describing the fact he was uninjured as a “miracle”.

The witness told The Telegraph the Duke had seemed “quite distraught” in the aftermath of the incident, as police arrived at the scene. He is understood to have been helped out of his vehicle, which had flipped over, trapping the driver’s door shut.

Photographs of the wreckage appeared to show that the car had been hit on its passenger side, with heavy scrapes and dents in what will have been a “reinforced” vehicle made for the Royal family.