Belfast: Six injured as car hits crowd of people

Six people have been injured, two critically, after a car crashed into a crowd of people near Boucher Road in south Belfast.

Seven ambulances were sent to the crash scene, at the junction of Apollo Road and Falcon Road, at about 20:30 GMT.

Two people are in a critical but stable condition in hospital. Two are in a stable condition, while the other two have been discharged from hospital.

A 24-year-old man was arrested but has since been released on bail.

A television crew was filming a reconstruction for a crime show in the area at the time of the crash. It is understood about 20 people were taking part.

Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) spokesman John McPoland said it was immediately declared a "major incident" due to the number of casualties.

He said ambulances were at the scene "within five minutes".

"We got reports of a car going out of control [which] ploughed into a crowd of people," Mr McPoland told BBC Radio Ulster.

"We attended with seven A&E ambulances, a number of officers and a number of rapid response paramedics and we have taken six people away from the scene.

"People have a mixture of injuries including fractures and facial injuries."

Mr McPoland said it was "extremely rare" to have a major incident of this kind in Belfast, which required seven ambulances.

"At that very moment I was under particular pressure to try and maintain cover in the city for other calls," he said. We did respond in that hour to another 10 calls."

A man who was involved in the reconstruction for the crime show described what he witnessed.

He said he was on the footpath beside a fence filming a group scene with about 16 people, when he heard the sound of a car accelerating as it came down the road.

"I turned around and saw the car coming from far off, I realised it wasn't stopping and myself and several others moved out of the way, but six people got hit by the car," he said.

"The car continued to drive through the fence, it crashed through it.

"There was a lot of screaming and blood, with people on the ground, I was trying to make sure friends stayed conscious until the ambulances arrived.

"The ambulances were very quick and their staff took control then, we helped out as much as possible.

"It was terrifyingly surreal, I still don't believe it happened."

He said he understood the car involved in the incident was not part of the filming for the crime reconstruction.

In a statement, Irish state broadcaster RTÉ said it was "aware of the incident involving members of an independent production company, who were filming for RTÉ in Belfast city last night.

"The PSNI are currently investigating the incident. RTÉ cannot comment further at this time."