Have I failed my point duty test, Sarge?

It was the moment a rookie policeman wished the ground would just swallow him up.

Senior police officers switched off the traffic lights at a key central London junction to demonstrate the finer points of controlling traffic by hand signal.

To make sure no one was in any doubt, they erected a large, official, yellow sign: "Traffic training exercise in operation."

Story follows...

And then the trainee traffic police community support officers took over. Within minutes, two vehicles were apparently waved forward at the same time from different sides of the junction at Elizabeth Street and Buckingham Palace Road.

As passers-by and up to 20 other uniformed officers looked on in horror, a £60,000 convertible Jaguar XK8 collided headlong with a Ford saloon, leaving both cars severely damaged and their drivers shaken.

A Lite reader said: "There was a loud bang and we all rushed out of Victoria coach station to see what had happened. There was absolute mayhem with one car wrecked and the other badly damaged, right in the middle of the road.

"It was like Keystone Kops. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the officer in charge was holding his head in his hands and the trainees were running around like headless chickens. They didn't know what to do. One looked like he wished the ground would swallow him up.

"There was smoke, steam and debris everywhere but the traffic kept coming because the lights were out. People were driving around the accident in amazement."

A Met spokesman said: "We are looking at what exactly happened and while regrettable, the traffic flow was safely maintained and professionally managed by the instructors."