A man has been taken to hospital after a truck collided with a railway bridge and overturned onto his parked van in Co Galway.

The incident happened at around 6.30pm at Bridge Street in Gort.

A truck, carrying scrap metal, struck an overhead railway bridge before crossing the road and overturning onto the van.

The vehicle had been parked at the time with just the driver inside. He managed to escape through the passenger-side door.

Local gardaí and fire crews rushed to the scene while an ambulance and rapid response advanced paramedic unit were sent from Ennis.

Iarnród Éireann was also alerted and engineers were sent to carry out an inspection of the bridge to see whether it had been badly damaged in the collision.

It is thought that the truck’s jib crane collided with the bridge before crashing onto the parked van.