Pizzeria diners have ‘miracle escape’ as police car smashes into pavement tables

DINERS screamed in horror as an unmarked police car veered off-road and crashed into tables outside a busy London pizzeria.

Witnesses said it was a “miracle” no one was killed when the silver Vauxhall Astra careered on to the pavement after clipping a black Nissan Qashqai.

Tables and chairs outside Pizza East in Kentish Town were sent flying before the police car, with its sirens and blue lights on, smashed into a steel bollard.

Shocked diners told how one man in his thirties was left unconscious, bleeding heavily from his head, and treated at the scene before being taken to a specialist trauma centre. At least three people were injured in the crash in Highgate Road at 7.45pm last night but none are said to be critically hurt.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into the crash, which left debris and glass strewn over the pavement.

The officers in the car were responding to reports of a knifeman more than two miles away in Bloomsbury. They were treated for whiplash injuries.

Journalist Joff Wild, 52, who was driving past, said: “I heard the siren and saw a police car coming pretty fast.

“It undertook a car waiting to turn right and clipped the back, hurtled into the line of tables and chairs, sending them flying into the air as people sat there, then smashed into a bollard. There were screams as people outside the pub on the corner came running to help. I saw a guy lying on the floor.

“It all s e e med to occur in s l ow motion, like something out of Starsky and Hutch. It’s a miracle more people were not hurt. Someone could easily have been killed. The police driver got out immediately. He looked in total shock.”

Diner Kate Evans, 25, who was in the back of the pizzeria at the time, said: “There must have been more than 120 people inside and everyone stood up to see what was happening. We could not believe what we were seeing.

“We left by the fire exit, as the crash was in front of the main door. The staff were calm but police were yelling at us to get out. There was glass and bits of car everywhere and an unconscious man on the floor with blood all over his head. There was a woman who was very shaken. She had her head in her hands and police were comforting her.”

Another witness said: “There was a guy on the floor lying completely still and the paramedics were cutting off his clothes.”

Comedian Talal Karkouti, who was performing a set in the pub opposite, said: “We walked past and one guy had all his clothes cut off, while a woman in a blue shirt was sitting over his body, crying.”

Civil servant Vicky Meskaitye, 23, said: “I heard the screech of wheels and looked up to see a car crash into a pole really fast. It was going so fast that the boot flew open. Then I saw someone on the floor motionless. It was awful.”

The road was cordoned off as police investigated the crash.

A Met Police spokesman said the driver of the Qashqai stopped at the scene. There have been no arrests.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “We treated a man for a head injury and took him to a major trauma centre.

“We also checked over two other patients, a man and a woman, at the scene but neither of them were taken to hospital.”

Police are appealing for witnesses to contact them on 101 or via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.