Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has had a miraculous escape in a high-speed car crash.

He suffered minor injuries to his legs, hand and back in the head-on collision during filming for the BBC show.

He described it as his first serious road traffic accident in 31 years.

Clarkson, 48, said: "My right index finger looked like a burst sausage, my left shin was fatter than my thigh and my back felt like someone had driven over it with a pile-driver."

In 2006, his co-host Richard Hammond survived a 315mph crash, also while filming.

Yesterday, from their Cotswolds home in Chipping Norton, Clarkson's wife Frances said: "My husband is fine."