Strand crash: Met Police issues statement as vehicle ploughs into London crowd | UK | News

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that a van has crashed into a group of pedestrians on the Strand. Police said one person had died but they were not treating the incident as terror-related. A witness at the scene told LBC they heard “a few girls may have been hit.” They said: “I’m waiting for my friends to come out. They sound pretty shaken, but I don’t know what they saw.”

Armed police are at the scene which is outside King’s College London and near to Somerset House. At least two fire engines with 10 firefighters and three ambulances are also in attendance.

The student added: “We saw people lying down with people with ambulances around them… Everyone’s kind of shocked.”

A 26-year-old man has been arrested at the scene. Photos from the scene show someone being treated by paramedics.

A Metropolitan Police statement said: “Police are on scene and dealing with a collision close to The Strand, WC2. Officers were called at 11.41am on Tuesday March 18 following a collision involving a van and pedestrians.

“Three pedestrians suffered injuries, with a woman in her twenties sadly pronounced dead at the scene. Two pedestrians have been taken to hospital, one has potentially life-threatening injuries, and the other has minor injuries.

“The driver of the van, a 26-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion causing death by careless driving and driving with concentration of specified controlled drug above specified limit.

“He remains in custody.

“Enquiries are ongoing and a crime scene is in place.

“This collision is not being treated as terrorism-related.”

Miles Damone, a student at King’s College London, told the BBC he saw a van “ram into a fence”.

He said: “The van came from one of the side roads by the Indian embassy and then at this point – I didn’t see how or when – crashed into the people.

“I just saw it coming from there, made a sharp turn and just rammed into the fence. It rammed into the side of the church.”

The crash took place in the heart of London’s tourist area, yards away from Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square, close to the capital’s theatre heartland.

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