A police sergeant was left unable to drive, shower, or dress after a Palestine Action activist struck her with a sledgehammer during a break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site, a trial has heard.

Six activists are accused of using a prison van to break into an Elbit Systems UK factory in Bristol in the early hours of August 6 last year, wearing red jumpsuits and armed with weapons and pyrotechnics.

Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, deny all charges of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. Corner denies a further charge of causing Police Sergeant Kate Evans grievous bodily harm.

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Evans told Woolwich crown court that she was attempting to place handcuffs on one of the female activists at the scene when she felt a “thud” on her back. She told the jury: “I remember looking up at my colleague. He just had this shocked face on him then I just remember pain in my back. It was just a massive shock vibrating through my whole body, a thud on my back. It just extended through my whole body down to my legs. I felt frozen. I was stunned to begin with. I didn’t know what it was. I remember looking round and seeing the male with the sledgehammer behind me.”

She added: “I can remember a million thoughts racing through my head. When I look back it was almost like I was in a movie and everything happened really fast around me. My head’s thinking my spine is shattered at this point.”

Evans told the trial that she recalls only one blow but her colleague Police Constable Peter Adams said he saw Corner hit her on her back twice. Adams told the court: “I remember her screaming in pain and she’s fallen to the floor on her back.”

Police Constable Aaron Buxton, who also attended the incident, recalled the “blond male”, who hit Evans, swinging a sledgehammer at him moments before when he had tackled another activist to the floor. He told the jury: “I was laid on my back with the male with brown hair on top of me. The male with blond hair turned and walked back towards us. He has swung the sledgehammer multiple times towards me. I don’t know how many times he swung it because in the moment I was scared. I believe it made contact with my right calf and my work radio. I had quite considerable pain down that area of my leg following it. Also I had slight bruising come up.”

The court heard that Evans was left with a large bruise on her back and an X-ray showed a fracture to her lumbar spine, leaving her unable to return to work for three months.

All six defendants were arrested at the factory.

The court heard that Elbit Systems UK was a manufacturer of defence technology equipment whose parent company is based in Israel.

The trial is expected to last until January.