Google Street View car 'sends hare flying across road after smashing into animal', capturing horror on in-built cameras

Pictures taken and uploaded to Google Maps show the awful accident

A Google Street View car has captured the exact moment it appears to have hit a wild hare while mapping the roads of rural Poland.

Images of the incident were spotted by Google Maps users, who uncovered several frames of the event unfolding.

The pictures captured by the roof-mounted 360-degree camera show the animal attempting to cross a road in Biala Droga, Poland, before coming in contact with the Google Street View Car.

It is not clear what the eventual fate of the hare was, or if the driver of the car was even aware it had hit the animal.

Google has been contacted for more information about the incident.

Some social media users reacted with horror at the sequence of photos, while others questioned the driving of the Google Street View car.

"I always imagined the Google cars being quite slow. I guess I was wrong," one Reddit user wrote.

Google's fleet of Street View vehicles include cars, scooters and snowmobiles, which between them have mapped streets in the majority of countries around the world.

Various incidents have been captured throughout the thousands of miles covered by the vehicles, including dancing bin men and William Tell reenactments.