Car crashes into crowded snack shop in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) -- A car went out of control and crashed into a crowded snack shop during lunch hour on a busy downtown street Tuesday, sending six people to the hospital, authorities said.

A car ran over a sidewalk, into scaffolding and then broke through the front window of Mac Kelly's Greens & Things snack shop on West Madison Street around 12:30 p.m., said Chicago Fire Cmdr. Will Knight.

Those injured were on the street or in the snack shop, while no one in the car appeared to be hurt, Knight said.

"I heard a bang and turned around to see the car head into the scaffolding. People were running all over. The window was shattered and the people were hit by the shattered glass," a witness, Annette McCarthy, said.

She said three women and two little girls got out of the car and appeared to be uninjured.

One person was in serious condition and one in fair condition at Cook County Hospital; two women, ages 48 and 32, were in fair condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; and two people were at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center but their conditions were unknown, spokesmen for the hospitals said.

The accident drew hundreds of office workers who lined both sides of the street to watch the dozens of police, firefighters and rescue crew members on the scene.