A teenage girl is dead after a car fled from police investigating a report of illegal street racing and crashed into a Canterbury home this morning.

Canterbury rural area commander inspector Peter Cooper said police were called to a report of illegal street racing activity in the Fernside area just before 4.45am.

A car fled the scene and police pursued the car for a time but stopped “due to the manner of driving and the urban environment.”

An 18-year-old girl died after a car crashed into a house in Rangiora. The driver has been arrested, Photo / George Heard

Shortly after, the car was found crashed into the side of a home on McIvor Place in Rangiora after crashing into a tree.

Cooper said no one in the house was hurt but one of the four passengers in the vehicle, an 18-year-old girl, died at the scene.

Cooper told the Herald the girl’s family were “devastated”.

“This is the result of illegal street racing at night.”

The owner of the home, Barry, told the Herald he woke up after hearing a crash and breaking glass.

He went to investigate, thinking someone could be breaking into his house.

“I came out here to the lounge and there was a big chunk of wood had gone right through the window with glass all through the lounge.

“The guys were yelling out they wanted the police, so I rang the police and the ambulance turned up as well.

“Unfortunately, the young girl passed away.”

The passengers of the car were across the road yelling, Barry said.

”When I came out here I couldn’t believe it. It was a mess.”

Police had been investigating illegal street racing in Fernside before the car fled the scene and crashed in Rangiora. Photo / George Heard

He said a sleeper at the front of his house stopped the car from going into his lounge.

“I would say he was going at a hell of a pace, the only thing that stopped him going right through to my lounge was the sleeper, the back wheel hit that and it stopped him otherwise he would’ve kept going.”

The police were on the scene within 30 seconds of calling , he said.

Asked if he had any issue with boy racers down his street, he said they hear them in the mornings some times.

He believed the rest of the group were “all reasonably young kids”.

”It’s just a sad day for some family.”

Photos from the scene of the crash show the mangled wreck of the vehicle crashed in the front garden of a home near a large tree.

A pink sticker, ordering the car off the road, can be seen affixed to the car’s windscreen.

The car crashed into a tree and then a house on McIvor Place in Rangiora. Photo / George Heard

The driver of the car, an 18-year-old male, has been arrested and is being questioned by police.

“Two other passengers were uninjured and are speaking to police.”

Several investigations will now take place, including inquiries by the Serious Crash Unit and the Independent Police Conduct Authority.