Three people were hurt when a tree limb fell on them while they were walking down a street in Teaneck, New Jersey, officials said. 

Police said the two people were trapped after the limb snapped onto power lines in the area of Churchill Road and Sussex Road on Thursday morning. A third person was also struck by the branch, but was not trapped. 

Tree limb falls on pedestrians

Neighbors said they felt and heard the impact when the limb fell on Sussex Road at around 8 a.m.

"The house was shaking. I thought, 'Oh my god, another earthquake?'" Inna Rossina said. "It was very loud, and then a woman screamed, 'Let me out! Let me out!' It was horrible." 

Two women, ages 44 and 45, were trapped by the branch. A third woman, 50, was also struck by the branch on the opposite side of the street. 

The large branch also hit a passing Tesla driven by a 36-year-old man with his 4-year-old daughter in the car. The branch hit the car's roof. Neither was seriously hurt, although the driver suffered minor cuts due to broken glass. 

Luckily, some tree removal crews happened to be passing by and were able to help rescue the pedestrians, who were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The woman who was also struck across the street was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. 

"The officers that originally arrived on scene stopped somebody from a tree company that came over with a chainsaw to assist," Teaneck Police Chief Andrew McGurr said.

The crews on the scene said the tree appeared to be rotten, which likely caused the limb to fall. That tree is on Larry Waxenberg's property.

"It's scary. You never know what's going to happen, you know? You're just walking down the street like those other people were, and it broke," Waxenberg said.

Town officials told Waxenberg that the rest of the tree now needs to be cut down.

Crews then spent the morning repairing the downed power lines and removing the thick, heavy tree limbs from the street, which was closed due to the mess.