Former Top Gear presenter involved in accident in St Gallen during filming of The Grand Tour

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has been airlifted to hospital in Switzerland after being involved in a car crash while in Switzerland filming his new Amazon show.

The accident occurred in the town of St Gallen in north-east Switzerland during a shoot for The Grand Tour. The 47-year-old had to be pulled from the wreckage of a Rimac supercar worth £2m that later burst into flames.

His fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson tweeted:

Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) It was the biggest crash I've ever seen and the most frightening but incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK.

An Amazon spokeswoman said that Hammond had been “involved in a serious crash” and had a fracture to his knee. But she said Hammond “very fortunately suffered no serious injury”.

“Richard was conscious and talking, and climbed out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames,” she said.

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The latest incident comes less than three months after Hammond was injured falling off a motorbike while filming in a remote part of Mozambique.

The presenter later posted on the DriveTribe website: “Yes I fell off but yes, I’m fine. Sorry … Thanks for inquiries re my slight shunt whilst filming for GT. I can confirm that yes, I fell off a bike, many times, in fact and yes, I banged my head and everything else. But life goes on.”

Neither incident appears anywhere near as serious as the one 11 years ago that left Hammond with life-threatening head injuries and brain damage following a 288mph crash while filming a Top Gear stunt.

The presenter was in a coma for a fortnight but left hospital after five weeks and eventually made a full recovery.

Hammond, along with Clarkson and James May, were presenters of the BBC’s Top Gear but defected to Amazon after Clarkson was fired by the broadcaster for punching a producer.

The Grand Tour made its debut on Amazon Prime in November 2016. The number of viewers each episode has attracted has not been made public by Amazon, with even the presenters saying they were none the wiser.

May said: “They won’t tell us. That’s the rules and they really won’t.”

The first season ended in February, with the Guardian’s Stuart Heritage declaring that its high point was undoubtedly the two-part Namibian travelogue: “Racing across Africa in beach buggies gave Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May space to breathe and allowed some of their most naturalistic interplay for years. This is exactly what every episode of The Grand Tour should be.”