Moscow taxi hits pedestrians
MOSCOW: A taxi drove into a crowd of pedestrians near Moscow’s Red Square on Saturday, injuring seven people, including two Mexicans in the city for the soccer World Cup which Russia is hosting, officials and eyewitnesses said.
The incident took place as residents and visiting soccer fans thronged the centre of Moscow on a warm evening, a short distance from the Kremlin.
Moscow’s traffic management authority said the taxi driver had a driver’s licence issued in Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim exSoviet republic. The driver, in custody, told police he had not driven into the crowd on purpose, according to a footage published on the Moscow police website.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a post on Twitter: ‘‘There was an unpleasant incident with a taxi. The driver lost control of the vehicle.’’
The city’s police said they were investigating a suspected violation of the traffic code.
They said seven people were injured in the incident. Moscow city’s healthcare department said earlier eight had been hurt and taken to hospital, of whom seven were in a satisfactory condition, while one woman was seriously hurt.
The Mexican embassy in Moscow said two Mexican women had been lightly injured. Also among those hurt were a Ukrainian, two Russians and two citi zens of Azerbaijan, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted a source in the emergency services as saying.
Video of the incident posted on social media showed the yellow Hyundai taxi pull sharply out of a line of stationary traffic, accelerate and mount the narrow pavement, which was packed with pedestrians.
The taxi drove for about 10m along the pavement, bowling over pedestrians and carrying some on the bonnet of the car. It came to a halt after hitting a traffic sign.
As bystanders tried to pull open the driver’s side door, the driver jumped out and sprinted away. More bystanders chased him and could be seen trying to tackle him as the footage ended.
Moscow’s traffic management authority said the driver was not drunk.
The driver said he wanted to brake but accidentally hit the accelerator instead, according to a video published by police.
The driver said he had been working for 20 hours by the time the incident happened. Asked why he ran away, he said he was afraid he would be killed after bypassers beat him.
A court will hold a sentencing hearing today, Tass reported. — Reuters