Six injured as woman’s car hits Muslim crowd
A DRIVER left six people seriously injured yesterday after ploughing into a crowd of Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.
There were fears of a terror attack after the 42-year-old lost control of her car as she left the religious event – hitting three children and three adults.
Screams from the injured caused panic among hundreds of people who had gathered at a sports centre in Newcastle to celebrate Eid.
But it quickly became clear it was an accident and not a copycat of last week’s attack on a London mosque in which a man died.
Witness uman Nyanzi said: ‘It was a complete freak accident. She was praying with us just before this all happened.
‘She seemed calm and collected beforehand. She was in the car and was speaking to someone just seconds before the accident.
‘It looked like she pressed the gas instead of the brake and lost control. The car started spinning. It was quite unbelievable. Someone had to jump in and pull the handbrake to make it stop.’
Medical student Ahmad Ali described how people formed rings around victims so doctors could get to them, adding: ‘ Someone was trapped under the car and then everyone pushed the car so they were free. One boy about eight was really badly injured.’
Two of the children were last night being treated in intensive care, while one of the adults was in a high dependency unit. The other three are said to have ‘serious but not life-threatening’ injuries.
Police arrested the female driver, who was confronted by people in the crowd following the accident outside Westgate Sports Centre at 9.15am. Mobile footage showed her sitting on the ground telling a policewoman: ‘I don’t know how it happened. I was trying to brake.’ When a man told the officer she ‘did it intentionally’, the unidentified driver screamed: ‘ Don’t say so! Why would I do that?’ Northumbria Police Assistant Chief Constable Darren Best said that following the finsbury Park van attack on worshippers leaving a mosque in north London, in which one died and several were injured it was ‘understandable that people will have jumped to a conclusion’. But he added: ‘We have no information to suggest that this is a terror-related incident.’ Darren Osborne, 47, from Cardiff, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on friday accused of terrorist-related murder and attempted murder.