Tragedy on the Strand: Van crashes into crowd near King’s College, one dead

A woman in her 20s has died and two others are injured after a van crashed into a group of students in central London.

The pedestrians were hit after a van crashed into the lunchtime crowd outside Bush House on The Strand, near King’s College London.

The emergency services were alerted after reports of a collision, but a woman in her 20s died of her injuries at the scene.

One of the pedestrians suffered potentially life-threatening injuries, while another one had minor injuries.

The incident is not terror-related, the police confirmed. The driver of the van, a 26-year-old man, was arrested at the scene.

He was apprehended on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and driving with an amount of a controlled drug above a specified limit.

Footage shows ambulance services treating the casualties on the ground.

Paramedics rushed to the scene where a transit van appeared to have hit a crowd near King’s College’s Strand campus (Picture: PA)

Eyewitnesses have questioned how the van was able to get near the pedestrian area that usually sees limited traffic and is protected by turnstiles (Picture: Belinda Jiao)

Eyewitnesses said some people were ‘badly hurt’ and being treated by paramedics near the university’s Strand campus.

Arndt, 18, a politics student at King’s, came across the scene when he came out of class.

He told Metro: ‘At first I thought it was a construction worker who fell from or something because they were just like two bodies lying on the concrete further apart. 

Giangiacomo, a King’s student, said he saw at least two people on the ground (Picture: Belinda Jiao)

‘One of them looked like they were wearing a grey King’ college construction sweatshirt. Police weren’t there yet, but it was clearly bad because I saw some girls crying.

‘Police came within five minutes and began doing CPR on one of the victims – I’m pretty sure they died.’

Student Rokshana told Metro: ‘I haven’t heard anything, I didn’t even know this place was sectioned off until they told us we had to go around and go through the old entrance to Bush House.’

A map showing where the van crash happened (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

She said she was not aware of any alert sent to students about the situation.

Giangiacomo, 20, a student, said the incident raises a lot of questions on how the van was able to get to the area, which is usually protected by turnstiles usually opened for embassy or university vehicles, Metro understands.

He told Metro: ‘It’s scary, I arrived here 10 minutes after it happened and I saw the medics reanimating someone and at least two if not three bodies on the floor so it’s definitely scary.’

One woman has died after the transit van crashed into people near Somerset House (Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

A forensic tent was erected on The Strand after one woman was killed in the van crash (Picture: Belinda Jiao)

One first-year student told how he saw a van going ‘fast’ before the crash.

He told the student paper Roar: ‘It was nuts. I saw a van going so fast and swerving out of the way of people then I heard a loud crash.

‘It did not look intentional.’

A cordon has been put in place near the Bush House, The Strand (Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

Arthur Feldman, a student a King’s, said he left a class as the accident happened.

He told Metro that although ‘police had put up barriers and such’ it was still ‘very visible that the people who got run over were in a very bad shape.’

Footage appears to show a dark Ford Transit van near the scene, with a police cordon in place.

Armed officers are also in attendance at the scene near King’s College along with two fire engines and around 10 firefighters.

The road was blocked off after the incident shortly before midday.

Four people were treated at the scene, the ambulance service said after it was alerted at about 11.39am.

A police tent was seen at the gates of King’s College London Strand campus after the fatal crash (Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

‘Sadly, despite our best efforts one person died. We took two people to hospital and a fourth person was discharged,’ a spokesperson said.

Metropolitan Police said: ‘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.’

A dark blue transit van had mounted the pavement near the Bush House (Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

A spokesperson for King’s College said they are ‘aware of an incident that has just occurred on The Strand and are liaising with emergency services to find out more information.’

The incident happened near the London School of Economics and Somerset House.

Bus numbers 9, 23 and 172 are on detour.