Dramatic CCTV footage has captured the heart-stopping moment a bus nearly hitting a woman on a zebra crossing – moments before it smashes into a shop in London.
The incident took place at Selwyn Avenue in Highams Park, East London, leaving three children and two adults in hospital, Daily Mail reported.
Screengrab/YouTube
In the footage that has now gone viral, the bus nearly hits a woman as she crossed the road outside before it crashed into an appliance shop, trapping the driver behind the wheel for almost half hour.
Police as well as emergency crews raced to the scene in Highams Park on Tuesday morning after the crash.
Medics from the London Ambulance service including a trauma team from the Air Ambulance were assessing and treating 19 patients. As many as five people – three children and two adults – were taken to hospital, as per Daily Mail.
The girl, believed to be aged around 11 or 12, is said to be a Highams Park secondary school student who was just about to get off the bus when it crashed. Another girl is also said to have been severely injured, according to eyewitnesses. Eyewitnesses say they believe the driver “blacked out” shortly before the bus crossed an island in the road and smashed into the shop, according to The Mirror.
CCTV from the nearby The Corner Café showed a pedestrian running to escape the path of the vehicle as it ploughed across a zebra crossing. Waitress Tina Hogan, 58, said the woman had entered the Corner Cafe on The Broadway moments later “in an awful shock”.
PA
“She was saying ‘Oh my god, he nearly ran me over. I can’t believe it. I had to run out of his way’. She was in an awful shock. I gave her a glass of water. She left after that,” Hogan was quoted as saying by The Mirror.
The mangled bus was slowly winched away to reveal a damaged shopfront in the afternoon on Tuesday. Schoolchildren and local residents gathered around a police cordon, which remained in place, to watch as the vehicle was moved off the pavement.
A shattered front window and a large shard of metal hanging in front of the cab were visible as it was attached to a tow truck. Emergency services remained at the scene as the removal operation was carried out.
For more from trending, click here.