A woman has told how she and her neighbours tried to save her boyfriend after he became trapped underneath his car.

Viktorija Galvanauskaite said her boyfriend of two years Sarunas Masionis was attempting to fix the parking brake of his car, when the car somehow fell on top of him and trapped him underneath.

Speaking just hours after the incident, which happened on Mingay Road, Thetford, at around 11.17am today [Thursday], the 18-year-old said she could not believe what had happened.

“I was sitting in the sitting room and he was just fixing his parking brake and I believed he could fix it because he wasn’t doing it for the first time,” she said.

“I just came out for a cigarette and it was five or 10 minutes after that.

“I said to him ‘how are you doing?’ and he did not answer and then I went to wake him and called the emergency services.

“I tried to wake him up but he did not react. The other woman who lives here went to the neighbours and asked for help.

“The neighbours tried to help lift up the car.”

Miss Galvanauskaite said Mr Masionis, who was 20, was breathing when they got him out from underneath the car.

She said the paramedics told her he was fighting “really hard”.

Sadly, despite the best efforts of the ambulance staff, he died at the scene.

Speaking of her boyfriend, who worked at Chase Plastics in Brandon, she said: “He was a really nice person. Such a lovely person.

“He liked to do things with his own hands because he knew he could do that.

“He was going to be 21 next Thursday. We were planning a birthday party and a trip to Lithuania [where they are both originally from] next month.”

She added: “It is unbelievable what happened. Sometimes I am crying really bad and sometimes I just cannot believe it.”

Police, the fire service, East of England Ambulance Service Trust and their Hazardous Area Response Team, and the East Anglian Air Ambulance all attended the incident.

A spokesman for the EEAST said: “Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.”

Police have said they are treating Mr Masionis’s death as a sudden death.

A file would be prepared for the coroner.