London Museum Crash ‘Not Terrorist-Related’

Police officers at the scene on Exhibition Road after a car mounted the pavement and collided with pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum on Oct. 7, 2017, in London. Leon Neal/Getty Images

A crash outside the Natural History Museum in London on Saturday afternoon injured 11 people and is not being treated as “terrorist-related”, police said.

A car mounted the pavement and ploughed into a crowd outside the museum in South Kensington around 2.21 p.m. BST on Oct. 7.

In an earlier statement, police said a man had been arrested. An image and footage of a man being restrained by four people emerged on twitter.

The man detained by officers is now in custody in a North London police station.

The nature of the crash—a vehicle ploughing into a crowd of people—had some speculating online, that it might have been a terror attack.

Some people expressed their concerns on social media. “Apparently some kind of terror panic in South Kensington (London) Nr museums with 100s of people fleeing down the street,” said one Twitter user.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed in a statement that the crash is being treated as “a road traffic investigation”.

The museum was evacuated and the area was cordoned off with police tape, while reports said there were helicopters above and emergency services at the scene.

In March this year, a man ploughed into pedestrians with his car on Westminster Bridge. He then fatally stabbed a police officer outside Parliament. Six people died and at least 50 were injured.

In June, three ISIS terrorists drove a hired van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. The attack left eight people dead and injured 48. Later in June, a man mowed down worshippers in Finsbury Park mosque leaving one man dead.

Britain’s security level for terrorism is in the “severe” category, the second highest, meaning an attack is considered to be highly likely.

Shortly after the crash, Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted: “My thanks to the first responders at this incident this afternoon and the actions of members of the public. My thoughts are with the injured”.

The London Ambulance Service said in a statement that 11 people were injured, with mostly leg and head injuries, and nine people were taken to hospital.