Updated 6.08pm
A NUMBER OF pedestrians have been injured after a car mounted a pavement on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London.
A man has been arrested at the scene. In footage being shared on social media, police officers can be seeing pinning a man on the ground in the aftermath of the incident.
The Metropolitan Police said they received a call just after 2.20pm today to inform them of the incident.
In a statement this evening, it said that it “is not being treated as a terror-related incident”.
“It is a road traffic collision,” police said.
The London Ambulance Service said that it had treated 11 patients, “mostly for leg and head injuries” and took nine of them to hospital. Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Deputy director of operations Peter McKenna said: “We sent multiple resources to the scene, including our hazardous area response team, ambulance crews, paramedics in fact response cars and incident response officers.”
Other footage and photographs from the scene showed a black car nearby with its door open and its bonnet severely damaged.
An AFP reporter said crowds in the area, who include many families, fled screaming in panic. Witnesses reported by some media said they heard a loud bang.
Sky News reported that counter-terrorism police were now assessing the incident.
Police said that “enquiries to establish the circumstances and motive are underway”.
An eyewitness told the BBC: “When waiting for the light, we heard what I thought was gunshots and saw a car drive over the pavement. We just ran. My friend dived on the floor and cut her hands.”
The area where the incident occurred is close to the popular tourist attraction of the Natural History Museum. Access to the area has been blocked off by police, and a number of museums in the area have been evacuated.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that he was in close contact with Assistant Met Commissioner Mark Rowley and other emergency services over the incident.
He urged people to avoid the area.
With reporting from AFP
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