Woman arrested after car mows down pedestrians on central London street

A 29-year-old woman was arrested at the scene after a car struck pedestrians on Argyll Street in Westminster, leaving one woman in her 30s fighting for her life and a man in his 50s with life-changing injuries. Police said the incident is not being treated as terrorism-related, but detectives are investigating it as a violent crash with serious criminal intent.

Officers were called at about 04:30 on Sunday, 19 April 2026, after reports that a car had been involved in a collision with pedestrians in central London. The Metropolitan Police attended alongside the London Ambulance Service, and the driver was detained on suspicion of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, dangerous driving and drink driving. She remained in custody as detectives tried to piece together exactly what happened on a street that sits at the edge of Oxford Circus and Soho, close to the London Palladium and Oxford Circus station.

The impact left three victims injured. A woman in her 30s was taken to hospital and remained in a critical condition. A man in his 50s suffered life-changing injuries. A third victim, another woman in her 30s, was treated for minor injuries. The arrests and the severity of the injuries have put the case squarely in the most serious category of street violence police handle, with investigators now working to establish whether the car was driven deliberately into the crowd and what may have led up to it.

That search for answers is being shaped by the location itself. Argyll Street is part of one of central London’s busiest nightlife corridors, and police said venues in the area were still open in the early hours, meaning there may have been people who saw the collision, or the moments before it. Detectives from Specialist Crime South, led by DCI Alison Foxwell, have appealed for witnesses to come forward as they try to reconstruct a sequence that turned a busy West End street into a crime scene in seconds.

The Met’s statement that the case is not being treated as terrorism-related narrows the focus but leaves the central question unanswered: why the vehicle was driven at pedestrians in the first place. For now, the facts are stark. One woman is critically ill, one man’s injuries will change his life, and a central London street known for late-night crowds is under scrutiny as investigators examine how a normal stretch of nightlife became the site of an attempted murder inquiry.