A HOT air balloon skimmed roof tops before finally making an emergency landing in Wey Meadow Close, Wrecclesham, on Thursday evening.

Eyewitnesses said the balloon, owned by The Packhouse antiques centre in Runfold, narrowly avoided telephone lines and trees, and reportedly clipped at least one building after struggling for altitude over the town at around 4pm.

Sightings were reported in Shortheath Road, Thurbans Road and over the Co-op in Wrecclesham Hill, and one resident of Red Lion Lane claimed on Facebook it “took our chimney out”.

Thankfully no-one was hurt and, according to one of the first people to arrive at the landing site, Carl Newman, the balloon’s two occupants even joked they had “just dropped off Santa”.

Carl told The Herald: “We were driving along Weydon Lane and the kids pointed out there was a balloon that was really low and my partner jokingly said ‘give chase!’.

“We turned down Wrecclesham Hill and I thought ‘hang on, that’s a little bit too close to the houses’, so we turned into Wey Meadow Close and next thing I know it’s literally just missed the houses and landed in the bit before the woodland.

“There were two men in the basket and they were fine. One of the guys even joked they had just dropped off Santa three days ago and were on their way back!”

Carl helped the two men take the balloon off the trees and roll it up, and 10 minutes later a support vehicle arrived to take the balloon and basket away.

He continued: “From what I could gather they’d had problems for a little while and just couldn’t get the balloon to go back up, but they had to land before the trees because the bit after the trees is a no landing zone.

“I don’t know what they took out, or whether they were even aware of what they took out because they didn’t say anything. But they had obviously been low for quite a long time because people saw it in Thurbans Road and Shortheath Road.

“They seemed to be quite smily and chirpy. They weren’t sheepish at all, and they didn’t seem down-hearted or anything. It was almost like it was a regular occurrence.”

It is not the first time The Packhouse’s balloon has made headlines in The Herald, having come down in the middle of a busy residential street in Haslemere in August 2014.

On that occasion the balloon’s pilot Alison Hougham, who owns the antiques centre, said it was the safest thing to do after the wind dropped suddenly.

• A spokesman for The Packhouse, which donates funds to local charities when its balloon flights are hired by groups, was unavailable to comment when contacted on Friday afternoon.