Police on the scene after a automotive collided with the gates of Downing Avenue in London in London, Thursday, Might 25, 2023. Police say a automotive has collided with the gates of Downing Avenue in central London, the place the British prime minister’s residence and places of work are situated. The Metropolitan Police drive says there aren’t any studies of accidents. Police stated a person was arrested on the scene on suspicion of felony harm and harmful driving. It was not instantly clear whether or not the crash was deliberate. (AP Photograph/Alastair Grant)
LONDON (AP) — A automotive collided Thursday with the gates of Downing Avenue in central London, the place the British prime minister’s residence and places of work are situated, setting off a fast safety response in one in every of London’s most-fortified websites.
The Metropolitan Police drive stated a person was arrested Thursday afternoon on the scene on suspicion of felony harm and harmful driving. There have been no studies of accidents.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in his workplace on the time.
Police lifted a cordon imposed in London’s authorities district lower than two hours after the collision happened. To this point counterterrorism officers haven’t been referred to as in to analyze the crash.
Video footage posted on social media confirmed a silver hatchback automotive heading straight for the gates at low velocity throughout Whitehall, the primary thoroughfare in London’s authorities district.
Footage shot quickly after confirmed a automotive with its trunk open up in opposition to the tall metallic gates. A number of cops minutely inspected the car, eradicating gadgets from the trunk and contained in the automotive and inserting them in proof baggage.
It was not instantly clear whether or not the crash was deliberate. Police stated they had been working to ascertain the circumstances.
“I heard a bang and seemed up and noticed a great deal of police with taser weapons shouting on the man,” stated witness Simon Parry, 44. “A whole lot of police automobiles got here in a short time and had been very fast to evacuate the realm.”
The BBC confirmed a photograph of officers main away a person with handcuffed arms behind his again.
Officers cordoned off a large space after the crash however started to carry the limitations inside half an hour, permitting folks again into Whitehall, which usually teems with civil servants and vacationers eager to see the close by Homes of Parliament and different historic buildings.
Downing Avenue is a slim road with a row of Georgian homes that features the prime minister’s official residence at No. 10.
Public entry to the road is restricted and the heavy metal gates are protected always by armed cops. Concrete bollards and metallic crowd limitations additionally assist preserve threats at bay.
The gates had been erected in 1989 in response to threats from Irish Republican Military militants. In 1991 the IRA fired three mortars on the road, one in every of which exploded within the yard of No. 10 whereas Prime Minister John Main was main a Cupboard assembly inside. Three cops and a civil servant suffered minor accidents.
The realm was focused in 2017, when an extremist impressed by the Islamic State group killed 4 folks with a car on Westminster Bridge earlier than stabbing a police officer to demise exterior Parliament.
