Cardiff riots: Police assess CCTV footage of van following electric bike
- By Daniele Palumbo and Paul Pigott
- BBC Verify and BBC News
Watch: CCTV appears to show police following people minutes before crash
Police are looking at CCTV footage showing a police van following two people on an electric bike minutes before a fatal crash that sparked a riot in Cardiff.
The video analysed by BBC Verify is time-stamped to 17:59 BST on Monday on Frank Road in Ely 900m, or just over half a mile, from the site of the suspected crash.
But South Wales Police said there were no police vehicles on Snowden Road – where the crash was – at the time it happened.
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“We have received footage that shows a police vehicle following a bike at just prior to 6pm,” Ch Supt Martyn Stone said in a statement outside Cardiff Bay Police Station.
He declined to answer questions after the statement.
The footage “will assist us in piecing together the circumstances leading up to the collision,” he added.
“You should examine the carefully-worded statement from the chief superintendent,” he said.
Image source, Getty Images
A car burns amid disorder in the Cardiff suburb of Ely
“We can confirm that the following investigations have been carried out so far, and that when the collision occurred there was no police vehicle on Snowden Road,” Ch Supt Stone said.
“At this stage we do not believe any other vehicles were involved.”
The force has made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), he confirmed.
An IOPC spokesperson said: “We will be sending investigators to a police post incident procedure to begin gathering information and to assess whether the IOPC will carry out an independent investigation”.
The ashes of burnt-out cars could be seen on Tuesday morning
Cars were set alight, fireworks were set off and paving slabs were thrown at police as more than 100 people gathered following the crash.
Litter and burnt cars were left on the street in Ely, Cardiff
“Fifteen police officers were injured, 11 were taken to hospital, and four were treated at the scene,” Ch Supt Stone said.
A number of arrests have already been made he said, “and there will be more to come”.
“Residents have our assurances that we will be doing our best to arrest those responsible,” he added.
‘Understandably frightened’
Police were called to the crash shortly after 18:00 BST on Monday.
At about 20:00, police tweeted that they were still at the scene of the collision but were also working to “de-escalate ongoing disorder”.
The force said it had received a large number of calls from “understandably frightened” residents.
The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was called back to the…