Woman is killed in police chase pile-up

A teenager today told of the moment she was thrown to the floor in a taxi as a Mercedes being chased by police smashed into them, killing one woman.

The six-car pile-up killed a woman in her thirties, who was in a blue Vauxhall Corsa, and left a man and a two-year-old girl fighting for their lives.

The crash in east London happened as police, in an unmarked car, chased two men in a black Mercedes 4x4 after they saw it being driven erratically.

Witnesses said the Mercedes and the police car jumped a red light before the 4x4 careered into at least six vehicles. Carly Flasher, 19, described how the car hit them as she climbed into the taxi with her mother and stepfather in Bethnal Green Road in the early hours of yesterday.

The family were on their way home to Loughton in Essex. Miss Flasher said: "We all ended up on the floor and I went into shock. All you could hear were crashes then people started screaming. I couldn't find my phone so my stepdad gave me his and I called the ambulance. It didn't seem real." Scotland Yard has launched an investigation.