Five military horses belonging to the Household Cavalry escaped their riders and went on a rampage through the streets of London on Wednesday morning, injuring at least four people. The incident occurred at 8:40am local time in the center of the British capital, when the horses were spooked by noise coming from a construction site during their daily morning exercise on Horse Guards Parade, in Whitehall.
The horses galloped through the streets for nearly two hours, crashing into cars and buses, and leaving a trail of blood in their wake. Videos shared online show the frightened animals covered in blood and running at high speed. One eyewitness recalled seeing one of the riders “screaming in pain” after he fell off his steed as it struck a car near the Clermont Hotel on Buckingham Palace Road.
“’I saw a soldier falling down into the street after the horse ran into a car,” the witness told The Telegraph. “The man hit the floor hard, he was screaming in pain. You could see blood all over the parked car.”
Another witness said: “They were running down the street at a very high speed. It was very scary. It’s rare to see horses stampeding down the street like that.”
In some of the pictures, some members of the public could be seen trying to help calm down one of the shaken horses, whose legs could be seen covered in blood.
By 10:30am, Metropolitan Police reported that all of the horses had been caught and accounted for. After being transported to veterinary care via army horse boxes, all of the animals are reported to now be back at the army camp.
“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,” an army spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the horses and personnel who were injured in the incident were “receiving the appropriate medical attention.”
