An eight-year-old girl was killed and several other children injured when a vehicle plowed into a building at a primary school in south-west London on Thursday.
This incident at the private girls’ school in Wimbledon – not far from where the Wimbledon tennis tournament is currently taking place – was not treated as terrorist-related by the metropolitan police in London.
The driver of the vehicle – a woman in her 40s – was indeed arrested at the scene and questioned in custody on the suspicion that she caused the death of a child due to reckless driving.
This woman stopped at the scene on Thursday after plowing her Land Rover into the Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon just before 10:00. On Thursday, the school’s learners between the ages of four and eight were on their last day at school before the school holidays.
A total of 15 ambulances and an air ambulance responded to the incident and 16 patients were treated at the scene. Ten of the patients were later taken to hospital for further medical treatment. It is not clear how old these patients are.
“It is very sad. One of the children – an eight-year-old girl – died at the scene,” Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland told reporters outside the school after the incident.
“This is a very difficult time for everyone here at the school and the wider community.”
The local Member of Parliament for Wimbledon, Stephen Hammond, for his part, said the incident was “extremely disturbing and tragic”.
