Family mown down by stolen car
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A SCHOOLBOY and his auntie died and three girls suffered horrific injuries after being hit by a car in a police chase yesterday.
The driver lost control on a bend and ploughed into the family as they walked to a park.
Witnesses told how a woman ran out of a nearby rail station screaming: “That’s my baby!” as she saw the wreckage.
Around 20 people lifted the black Ford Focus car off the five victims trapped underneath.
Last night those who died were named locally as Makaya McDermott, 10, and his aunt Rosie Cooper, in her late 30s.
The boy’s twin sisters, Niyah and Yayhla McDermott, 13, and another girl, thought to be a cousin, suffered multiple injuries and were rushed to hospital.
In harrowing scenes, witnesses said they saw a man cradling the dead woman in the wreckage on a grass verge after the incident in Penge, south east London.
The tragedy unfolded around 2pm yesterday as a police helicopter and two BMW patrol cars followed an alleged stolen vehicle.
Onlooker Tayla Goodman described the scene as “carnage” and said: “It was absolutely awful.”
Passer-by Venissa Vassell, 18, who tried to save the casualties, said: “They were on their way to the park, just having a nice day, and they’re gone now.”
A neighbour of the family said: “The scale of the tragedy for one family is almost too much to comprehend.”
Scotland Yard said a 23-year-old man had been arrested and investigations were continuing.