A woman was forced to give birth by the roadside after her taxi got stuck in traffic on the way to hospital last week.

Taxi driver Dave Cook was called to a flat in Kingston at 8.40am on Monday, September 19.

A heavily pregnant woman got into the car with her partner who told him to drive to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

But on the way they got stuck in traffic because of an accident on Roehampton Lane.

A worried Mr Cook overheard the man say on the phone that the woman had gone into labour so he pulled over on Roehampton Vale.

Fortunately they spotted a parked paramedic car and the paramedic called an ambulance.

The baby was born safely behind the parked cars shortly before 10am and an ambulance took the family to Kingston Hospital.

A relieved Mr Cook, a driver for Parker Car Service, said: "I heard the father say she was in labour and I thought 'Oh God'.

"There was nothing I could do, it was just fortunate the paramedic was there and the ambulance turned up.

"I often wondered if it might happen when I started as a cabbie seven years ago."