American actress Anne Heche has been critically injured after her car crashed into a house in Los Angeles and burst into flames.

According to NBCLA, the driver was speeding down a residential street – and the blue Mini Cooper drove 30ft into a two-storey home in Mar Vista.

Local media reports suggest the 53-year-old has suffered severe burns.

Officers believe the car possibly hit a kerb and was 2ft off the ground when it crashed through the front of the property.

Footage obtained by TMZ showed Heche driving the same vehicle that was later pictured severely damaged at the scene.

The crash caused a large fire within the property, and it took 65 minutes for 59 firefighters “to access, confine and fully extinguish the stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure”.

According to the LA Fire Department, one woman was found inside the car and was taken to hospital. While the building is now “uninhabitable”, the homeowner was unharmed.

One neighbour told NBCLA: “The house was tons of smoke. I think they used the crane to move the car to extract the driver. It was crazy.”

Heche is known for her roles in films including Psycho, Donnie Brasco and Cedar Rapids – and she previously dated Ellen DeGeneres between 1997 and 2000.