A woman was killed and two pedestrians injured, including one seriously, when a van mounted the pavement on the Strand in central London.
The driver of the van was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and driving with a concentration of drugs above the legal limit.
The Metropolitan police said the incident was not being treated as terrorism related.
Officers were called to the Strand outside King’s College London at 11.39am. A woman in her 20s was pronounced dead and two other pedestrians were taken to hospital. One has potentially life-threatening injuries; the other has minor injuries.
The driver, a 26-year-old man, was arrested at the scene and was still in custody on Tuesday afternoon.
Police were on the Strand taking statements from witnesses. Images from the scene showed a police cordon around a dark grey Ford Transit van.
A London ambulance service spokesperson said: “We were called today (Tuesday) at 11.39am to reports of an incident in the Strand, WC2.
“We sent resources to the scene including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, an incident response officer, a clinical team manager and London’s air ambulance.
“We treated four people at the scene. Sadly, despite our best efforts, one person was pronounced dead. We took two other people to hospital and one was discharged at scene.”
Ali, a PhD student at King’s College London who did not wish to share his surname, was leaving class when he saw emergency services gathered near the scene.
The 28-year-old said he initially thought emergency services were there for a protest outside the university, until he saw ambulance workers carrying stretchers.
“I was just walking out of class … at first I was disoriented, I thought it was a protest because it usually happens, but it was something else entirely,” he told the PA news agency.
“[It] is so sad and hard to process – my thoughts go out to her family and friends.
“We walk by that crossing all the time and it’s pedestrianised, barely any vehicles pass.”
