Mumbai, Jun 5 (IANS): In a freak accident, four Mumbai passengers including a driver had a miraculous escape when a long and thick iron rod fell on their moving car passing below a Metro pillar in Thane, officials said here on Monday.

It was around 12.15 p.m. Jitendra Yadav was driving in the heavy traffic from Bhandup, past the Teen Hath Naka area of Thane city to Kolshet, with three other passengers.

Suddenly, near the BPCL petrol pump, an iron rod apparently slipped from the hands of some labourers working above and crashed vertically on the roof of Yadav's car.

So powerful was the impact of missile-like fall that the rod spiked through the metal roof of the car and landed barely inches away from the petrified Yadav's seat and also the co-passengers but fortunately all were unharmed.

The car and other vehicles stopped on the road even as the Wagle Estate Police officials and a disaster management team rushed to the spot to inspect the 'rod accident', which was several feet long and a few inches thick and of considerable weight.

As videos of the hair-raising incident went viral on social media, the vehicle was moved aside, while the potentially killer rod was yanked out of the roof, and further probe is underway, said an official.