Car hits pedestrians outside Natural History Museum in London

Several people have been injured after a car reportedly drove into people outside London’s Natural History Museum.

Scotland Yard said a number of pedestrians had been injured in the incident in Exhibition Road in South Kensington shortly after 2.20pm on Saturday.

A spokesperson said: “It is not being treated as a terrorist incident at this stage while we establish what has happened.”

Pictures and footage shared on social media showed street damage and a large police presence in the capital’s museum district, which is home to the NHM, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

One witness, Lesley Carter, said passersby held the man down before police arrived.

“I saw the man pinned down by about six people – one guy was trying to pin him down with his four- or five-year-old daughter in his arms,” she said.

“It looked like the car had smashed into the wall between two other cars and the guy got out to run before being pinned down. Loads of people were running away and within minutes the police had turned up. It was a very quick response.”

Another witness, Maxim, told Sky News the man was taken out of the car before being held down.

“They took a man on the ground, they took the man from the car and put him on the ground and then 20 minutes later evacuated the street,” he said. “There was a lot of police, I saw people running, people were panicking.”

Another witness told the Press Association: “We were walking near the Science Museum and heard a bang, bang … at first I thought it was gunfire. Then we walked past the scene of the accident and saw a guy pinned down by other men and lots of people calling the police.

“There didn’t appear to be many people hurt – a few sat by the side of the road but more looking shaken than anything. We were then ushered into the Science Museum and the area was quickly cleared of pedestrians.”

A video posted on Twitter showed a man being restrained on the ground in the middle of Exhibition Road. None of the four people around him were in police uniform. A black Toyota car is behind them with the driver’s door open, and it appears to have collided with a silver Vauxhall saloon.

Police have described the incident in the South Kensington area of London as a collision and said the motive for the incident was under investigation.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said: “Officers are on scene, and the London ambulance service have been called. A man has been arrested at the scene.”

The museum said on Twitter that it was working with the Met police.

Downing Street said Theresa May was being kept up to date with developments.

A museum spokesman told Reuters that no one was being allowed into the building and people were being let out through a different exit.

A spokesperson for the nearby V&A Museum said it had had not been closed to the public after the incident.