Police shoot as envoy’s car attacked
Police opened fire outside the Ukrainian embassy in west London yesterday after the ambassador’s car was ‘‘deliberately rammed’’.
The drama, in Holland Park’s ‘‘Millionaire’s Row,’’ began after a man in a silver Mercedes drove into the official vehicle used by Natalia Galibarenko, who has represented Kiev in the UK since 2015.
Officers attempted to block the vehicle, then fired multiple shots with Tasers and live bullets after the Mercedes again drove into Galibarenko’s car – and also into police. The ambassador, 40, who is married with one son, was not present. She is believed to live in south London.
Photographs of the tree-lined street showed a man held down on the tarmac by armed officers. There was extensive damage, possibly caused by gunshots, to the Mercedes’s right-hand window.
Neighbours in the upmarket area – whose residents include David and Victoria Beckham, Robbie Williams and Sir Elton John – told The Sunday Times of their terror as events unfolded.
Grace Camano, 46, a nanny who works and lives next door to the embassy, said: ‘‘I heard somebody screaming and all of a sudden there was a ‘boom, boom, boom’ around six times. I was hiding under my bed. It was so scary, my bed was so close to it. I heard the police screaming, ’Go inside.’ I then ran upstairs and watched it. They put the guy in a police van and then after 30 minutes an ambulance came. The police got here really quickly.’’
Emma Slatter, general counsel for Visa Europe, said: ‘‘It seems like [the Mercedes driver] was moving erratically or wanting to move away from being boxed in, maybe not realising there were police behind him as well. I think I heard about half a dozen shots.’’
She said she and her partner fled from the window in case of a stray bullet. Slatter said: ‘‘The police seemed in charge. There were probably about eight to 10 guys in full body armour, some with submachine guns.’’
The incident took place on the fifth anniversary of Ukraine sustaining its first military casualty in the war with Russia for the country’s Donbass region. A few hours after the events in London, the embassy retweeted a message on social media by Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria, Olexander Scherba, commemorating the death.
However, it was unclear whether the incident had a political motive. Police said it was not being treated as a terrorist attack.
No one was injured, but police said the man in the Mercedes had been taken to hospital as a precaution.
Chief Superintendent Andy Walker, from the Met’s specialist firearms command, said: ‘‘As is standard procedure, an investigation is now ongoing into the discharge of a police firearm during this incident.’’ The Met said that, as shots had been fired, the Directorate of Professional Standards had been informed. – Sunday Times