An elderly Welcome Bay couple are in Tauranga Hospital after the car they were in flipped this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to the carpark behind Caltex Service station on Welcome Bay Road just after 12pm where an 89-year-old man and 88-year-old woman were trapped in a Honda Jazz on its roof.

Firefighters work to free two people trapped in a car on its roof in Welcome Bay carpark. Photos: Luke Balvert.

Firefighters used the jaws of life to free the pair from the upside down car before they were treated by St John Ambulance.

Constable Rich Martin says the Honda Jazz was travelling from the top carpark outside Super Liquor when it went straight over the curb towards the Caltex station before hitting a Suzuki Swift and flipping onto its roof.

'The blue car [Honda] has for some reason accelerated down the car park hitting the curb before going along the grass verge getting some height in the process.

'This has tipped the car over into the parked car [Suzuki Swift] pushing it back. It landed on the front right hand side of the car whilst the wheels are still spinning hitting the car before crashing into a third car.”

The elderly couple have been taken to Tauranga Hospital for precautionary measures with the man taken away in a neck brace.

'It took a while to get them out, but the firefighters did a good job of cutting the door away.”

Both cars hit by the Jazz were stationary at the time with no one inside and police investigations are ongoing as to why the man accelerated.