Four injured after runaway military horses bolted in central London

• By Liz Jackson & James W Kelly
• BBC News

Updated 3 minutes ago

Four people have been taken to hospital after five runaway horses of the Household Cavalry raced through central London, some colliding with traffic.

Four soldiers were unseated after the horses were spooked during an exercise in Belgravia, the Army said. One soldier was responsible for two horses.

Video on social media shows a gray and a black horse running through Aldwych, one with blood on its chest and legs.

The Army said the “working horses” had been recovered and returned to camp.

One serviceman was thrown from his horse in Buckingham Palace Road and one of the loose animals collided with a taxi waiting outside the Clermont Hotel, shattering the windows.

The injured soldiers are being assessed and the horses are being looked after by a vet.

The BBC understands the noise of builders in Belgravia caused the horses of the Household Cavalry to bolt and unseat the riders.

London Ambulance Service says four people were treated by paramedics in Buckingham Palace Road, Belgrave Square, and the junction between Chancery Lane and Fleet Street. All four were taken to hospital.

It said all three incidents took place within 10 minutes, between 08:25 and 08:35 BST.

An Army spokesperson said: “A number of military working horses became loose during routine exercise this morning.

“All of the horses have now been recovered and returned to camp. A number of personnel and horses have been injured and are receiving the appropriate medical attention.”

The Army also told the BBC that these soldiers and horses were on an extended exercise ahead of a Major General’s Inspection – which was due to take place on Thursday in Hyde Park.

A spokesperson said the group included six soldiers and seven horses. Four soldiers were thrown from their saddles, and five horses ran loose through London.

Every military unit taking part in the King’s birthday parade must pass a Major General’s Inspection in advance.

BBC reporter Tony Bonsignore witnessed the incident and told BBC Radio London he saw someone receiving treatment from paramedics.

“They were treating someone behind the blue cloth. That person has been taken away in an ambulance,” he said.

Mr Bonsignore was on a bus near Victoria Station when the incident unfolded, and said: “Everything came to a standstill. Right behind us a horse hit a tour bus, and you can see where it smashed the windscreen.

“There was blood on the floor as well.”

He added: “I saw a horse that was being led away, it wasn’t clear whether that horse had been injured.

“A sort of taxi van is pretty badly smashed up on the side, again with some blood on the floor and evidence of where horses were behind it.”

“You can imagine those horses will be spooked,” he continued. “This is an incredibly busy part of London at any time of day, but especially at half-past eight in the morning.

“It’s pretty grim to be honest, you can see it on the roads where it happened. It’s a pretty extraordinary thing.”

Black cab driver Robbie told BBC Radio London he narrowly avoided being hit by the horses.

He said: “I was just outside Buckingham Palace on the Mall and heard loads of galloping and looked behind and there were about three or four horses.

“Two of them were sprinting up towards Trafalgar Square and there was a white one covered in blood as well.

“I looked in the rear mirror and saw them coming right up behind me, and at the time I had two punts in the back so I was worried about them,” he added.

The horses swerved from his cab but said he was worried as one horse looked “injured quite badly”.

Sean, another taxi driver who was in Blackfriars, told BBC Radio London: “I was coming out of Victoria Station, and there’s a little cabbie road that comes out into Buckingham Palace Road.

“The lights turned green for me to pull out. I could hear horses hooves very loudly and quickly coming along, so nudged out of the side road and had a look and then three horses went past me at full gallop without riders.”

He added he “nudged out a little bit more” to check it was safe to pull out, and then “another horse came round the corner with a rider on it and just missed my cab and then he disappeared off”.

The “three horses went off towards Buckingham Palace”, before “it sounded like a car crash, so it sounded like one had been hit”, the taxi driver added.

He said as he pulled out of Buckingham Palace Road, he could see one of the riders “on his back being tended to”.

There was also “a Mercedes Vito parked outside the Grosvenor Hotel with its side smashed in, covered in blood, all the windows smashed”, he continued, and another rider on the ground at Belgrave Square.

He said he could also see “two horses with the riders intact and a female rider from the cavalry standing there sobbing her eyes out, and a black BMW with its rear window, its boot smashed in”.

London Fire Brigade said it had used its drone team to help locate the animals.

Additional reporting by Ian Aikman and PA Media.