Police release London museum crash driver

Johnson could be sacked

LONDON, Oct 8, (Agencies): British police said on Sunday a man arrested after a car collided with pedestrians in London, injuring 11, had been released under investigation while enquires continued.

A 47-year-old was arrested at the scene near London’s Natural History Museum on Saturday on suspicion of dangerous driving.

He was treated in hospital before being taken to a north London police station, the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner is Cressida Dick, said.

“This morning he was released under investigation while enquiries continue,” the police said.

People released under investigation are not required to attend again at a police station but can be contacted, and in some incidences arrested again, after further police enquiries.

A vehicle mounted the pavement and collided with pedestrians in one of the capital’s busiest tourist areas on Saturday afternoon, but police doused concerns it was a terrorist attack.

“Because of where this collision occurred and the number of pedestrians involved, I fully appreciate the concern and alarm this incident caused,” DC Darren Case from the Roads and Transport Policing Command said on Sunday.

“Enquiries have established that this incident is not terrorist related ... Thankfully there are no serious injuries with the majority now discharged from hospital.”

Dick

Woman tried to scale Palace gates:

British police said they had arrested a woman who was trying to scale the front gates of Queen Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace home in central London on Saturday, saying the incident was not terrorism-related.

“The woman, believed to be in her 30s was quickly detained by officers before she gained access to the palace grounds,” police said. She was arrested on suspicion of trespass and is being questioned at a central London police station.

“The incident is not being treated as terrorist-related,” police said.

British police are on high alert after five attacks blamed on terrorism this year. In August a man wielding a sword outside the palace was charged under terrorism laws. Three police officers suffered minor injuries detaining him.

There have been a number of other incidents in recent years in which people have tried to get into the palace grounds. Last October, a 21-year-old man was arrested after scaling a gate of the palace. He was later detained under a hospital order.

In May 2016, a man with a conviction for murder climbed over the wall and walked for about 10 minutes around the grounds of the palace before being arrested. He was jailed for four months.

Four years ago, a man armed with a knife tried to enter through a gate and was later jailed for 16 months. A month earlier, two men were arrested following a break-in at the palace.

One of the biggest security breaches at Buckingham Palace happened in 1982 when an intruder, Michael Fagan, climbed a wall and wandered into a room where the queen was in bed.

May ‘resilient’ amid threats:

British Prime Minister Theresa May says she is “resilient” despite a difficult speech at the Conservative Party conference and growing threats to her leadership.

She told the Sunday Times she would not hide from a challenge as she fights off a rebellion from some legislators unhappy with her leadership.

“The truth is my feelings can be hurt, like everyone else, but I am pretty resilient,” she said.

Former prime minister John Major urged Conservative Party members to support May and scolded those who have plotted against her.

“I urge all Conservative (lawmakers) to reflect very carefully on what is at stake,” he wrote in the Daily Mail. “The country has had enough of the selfabsorbed disloyal behavior we have witnessed for weeks.”

Major’s comments were viewed by some as a warning to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who while publicly backing May has twice proposed his own policies on the delicate Brexit negotiations over Britain’s future relationship with the European Union.

May has endured a difficult stretch, with a disappointing party conference speech followed by a claim by former party chairman Grant Shapps that he had a list of 30 legislators who wanted May to step down.

Meanwhile, May has signalled that she could sack Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a Sunday newspaper said, as she tries to reassert her authority after a series of political disasters.

The Sunday Times said it asked May about her plans for Johnson, who has professed loyalty but is accused by some of the prime minister’s allies of undermining her by putting forward his own vision for Britain’s exit from the European Union.

“It has never been my style to hide from a challenge and I’m not going to start now,” it quoted May as replying, in what it called a signal that she was prepared to bring in new ministers to her cabinet and axe those who had caused her problems.

“I’m the PM, and part of my job is to make sure I always have the best people in my cabinet, to make the most of the wealth of talent available to me in the party.”

‘Case helped by Brexit chaos’:

Britain’s struggles to chart a way out of the European Union are boosting the case for Scottish independence, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Sunday, but she shied away from committing to a date for another referendum vote.

Scotland rejected independence by a 10 percentage point margin in a 2014 vote, and polls indicate that support for it has not shifted significantly since then.

“We will consider the (independence referendum) timing again when we have more clarity on what we face,” Sturgeon said, speaking as her Scottish National Party (SNP) began a three-day conference in Glasgow.

“People watch the chaos that is engulfing the UK right now and people look ahead and see the damage that is likely to be done by this unfolding disaster that is not just Brexit but this incompetent and chaotic approach to Brexit being presided over by (Conservative Prime Minister) Theresa May,” she told the BBC.

“I think the case for Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands (...) is becoming greater and stronger by the day.”