Incredible moment crowd lifts BUS to free trapped unicyclist in Walthamstow

Rescue effort: the bystanders gathered around the bus to free the trapped cyclist (Picture; YouTube)
Zafer Sari/YouTube

This is the dramatic moment heroic Londoners rushed to save the life of a unicyclist by lifting a double-decker bus after he became trapped beneath its wheels.

Incredible footage shows up to one hundred Londoners rushing to the aid of the 55-year-old man in panicked scenes after the crash, which left him fighting for his life.

The extraordinary intervention came after the unicyclist was hit by a route 212 double-decker in Walthamstow at around 6pm on Thursday.

Screaming onlookers are seen running towards the scene of the crash before crowding around the bus in an effort to free the unicyclist from beneath one of its front wheels.

The aftermath of the collision in Hoe Street (Picture; Nigel Howard)
NIGEL HOWARD

They lift the 12-tonne vehicle and manage to move it several feet across the middle of a road in a desperate bid to save the man's life.

The dramatic footage, uploaded to YouTube after the incredible rescue effort, captures the panic among witnesses who are heard gasping and screaming during the desperate rescue effort.

Witness Kyra Sam told of the moment onlookers rushed to the man's aid after the rush hour collision in Hoe Street.

"I'm really amazed at the strength of Walthamstow - no one hesitated to push the bus off, I was in shock," she said.

"Everyone really came together to help - it was really nice to see that in the face of something so awful."

Sami Ullah, owner of nearby Directors Cut café, added: "I was standing at the till and heard a loud noise. It was a big bang – we thought it was a shotgun or something.

"All of a sudden we saw people leaving their chairs at Turtle Bay and Pizza Express and running towards the road. We saw people actually coming out of the bus as well. Everybody was shouting and screaming.

"Then all of the people tried to somehow move the bus a little bit."

Police said the driver of the bus stopped at the scene and there have been no arrests.

The scene of the crash in Walthamstow (Picture: Nigel Howard)

Scotland Yard said: "Police were called at 5.50pm to a bus in collision with a unicyclist in Hoe Street, E17.

"The male unicyclist was taken by ambulance to an east London hospital where his condition is believed to be serious.

The footage emerged as police confirmed a female cyclist died in a separate crash with an HGV during a day of horror on London's roads on Thursday.

The woman thought to be 32, lost her fight for life yesterday evening after the crash in Camberwell during the morning rush hour.

She had been taken to King's College Hospital, around 100 metres from the scene of the collision with a lorry on Denmark Hill at the junction with Orpheus Street just before 8am.

The unnamed woman is the sixth cyclist to have died on London's roads this year.

Five of the six victims have been women, and HGVs have been involved in all of the six collisions.

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