Thirteen people were injured, two critically, when a driver thought to be a priest, fell ill and drove into a crowd of mourners gathered outside a church in Ireland.

Seven people, out of hundreds preparing to attend the ceremony, were taken to hospital, including the priest who was due to speak at the funeral.

He is believed to have suffered a heart attack just before the crash, which took place outside the Immaculate Conception Church in Clondalkin, west Dublin.

A total of 13 people were treated at the scene, emergency services. Police are treating it as an accident.

Two of the victims were said to be in a critical condition but neither police nor health chiefs were able later to give an update on their conditions.

One woman, believed to be a relative of some of the mourners, described how witnesses "heard screaming" and "everyone started running".

The funeral had to be postponed and drivers were warned to avoid the area.

One mourner described the scene as “shocking”, and told thejournal.ie that people had been trapped under the car after it hit the bystanders.

“It happened as I arrived, and there were people trapped under the car, and just from listening to people they said it was [the driver] who took a heart attack and crashed into people," he said. “It’s really shocking, to see the people trapped and the injuries involved, it really was shocking.

“The emergency services were coming in the gate, and people were screaming and crying, things like that you know. The whole village was closed off, the hearse had to continue up the road to let people in.”

Another resident, Maureen McNulty, who rang for an ambulance, said that “people thought it was a bomb, that’s how loud it was”.

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“There was one man caught underneath the car, and another caught at the front. A lot of men tried to lift the car off him and couldn’t do it, so they had to let car back down again,” she told the website. “The place was littered with people on the ground. I just said you’re going to need a half-dozen ambulances. It was so frightening.

“There were people running everywhere. The driver sort of fell in the passenger seat, and then there were people looking after him. There were a lot of people just slightly injured, but in terrible shock,” she added.

Local councillor Emer Higgins described the incident as “a terrifying ordeal” for all those involved.