Two knives were recovered by police after a car ploughed into pedestrians standing outside a North London pub Saturday night at a reported speed of 50 miles per hour.
A woman and two men were injured when a Peugeot people-carrier slammed into the crowd on Essex Road Islington, although thankfully none are thought to have been critically injured, reports London’s Evening Standard. Images posted to social media from the scene show the car as having come to a stop in the middle of the carriageway after having driven through the crowd, smashing the windscreen.
The driver of the vehicle and a passenger attempted to flee after the incident, but were pursued by officers and a police helicopter. Four males aged between 17 and 19 have been arrested and charged with possession of “points and blades”, and grievous bodily harm.
Essex road in Islington just after pic.twitter.com/mHbKBNgCkG
— James (@J___A___H) March 25, 2017
Officers recovered two knives from the scene — one from inside the vehicle and another from the road beside it. A witness described one of the knives as “very large”, reports the Daily Mail.
Another witness told the paper: “There were about twenty people in the queue and I was at the back with my friends.
“The car came screeching round the corner at about 50mph and was coming straight for me. I pushed over the barriers and fell to the floor as the car smashed into three people infront of me. They were knocked over like dominoes.
“Everyone was screaming as the driver then drove off. It definitely looked deliberate and we all thought it was a terror attack. The bouncers then let everyone into the pub to keep us safe and police arrived almost immediately.
“The sight of the car was terrifying. I’m still in complete shock”.
The incident bears a certain resemblance to Wednesday’s terror attack just four miles away outside the Palace of Westminster, but police said Sunday they were not treating it as an act of terrorist violence.
The Old Queen’s Head pub where the victims were standing outside sits in the middle of the territory of the Essex Road Gang, according to a 2016 assessment of London gangs.
There have been other recent attacks other than the Westminster terror killings which involved a car ramming with knife follow-up. Breitbart London reported such attacks in Belgium and Italy within 24 hours of Westminster, both of which bore these hallmarks.
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