Woman killed and girl, 2, fights for life as police chase ends in tragedy

The six-car pile up killed the woman in her 30s, who was in a blue Vauxhall Corsa, and also 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 driving erratically.

The men fled the scene but were arrested shortly afterwards.

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Witnesses said both the Mercedes and the police car jumped a red light before the 4x4 careered into at least six vehicles, including the Vauxhall Corsa.

Carly Fisher, 19, described how the car hit them as she climbed into the taxi with her mother, Catharine, and her stepfather Kevin Stratford in Bethnal Green Road in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The family were on their way home to Loughton in Essex.

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Miss Fisher said: 'We all ended up on the floor and I went into shock. All you could hear were crashes and then people started screaming.

'I couldn't find my phone so my step-dad gave me his and I called the ambulance. It didn't seem real.'

A 45-year-old woman from one of the other cars is in a stable condition in Homerton Hospital with serious leg injuries, while a 47-year-old man needed treatment to his back.

The owner of a nearby taxi firm said one of his cabbies chased the driver of the Mercedes on foot.

He said: "The driver of the Mercedes jumped out and ran away from the scene. One of my drivers struggled with him but he broke free and ran away. The man was over 6ft and he couldn't keep hold of him.

"It was chaos. Police didn't know whether to chase the man or tend to the injured.

They chose to help the other passengers first because people were so badly injured.

"We heard the huge noises one after another as the cars piled up.

"One of our taxis was the last to crash and it was a write-off, so you can imagine the impact on the cars at the front. The Corsa had two passengers and they had to be cut out of the wreckage.

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"There was a child in the back. They were carried out on stretchers.

"Everyone was shouting and screaming. Cars were on both sides of the road.

"One of the passengers in a cab got out and started arguing with someone from the Mercedes. They were about to start fighting."

Local resident Michelle Roberts, 52, was woken by the noise.

"There was a loud bang and then another and another, like a series of explosions. I thought a bomb had gone off," said Miss Roberts, a personal assistant.

"The next thing was this awful screaming. It was a woman and a man screaming in desperation."

Scotland Yard's Department of Professional Standards has started an investigation, which is routine when police cars are involved in accidents.

The Home Office, said 126 people were killed in accidents involving police vehicles in England and Wales between 2000 and 2004.

The latest tragedy comes almost a decade after Channel 4 newsreader Sheena McDonald was hit by a speeding police van, travelling on the wrong side of the road in Islington, North London, responding to a 999 call.

The accident prompted a review of standards of police driving.

Miss McDonald spent 72 hours in a coma after suffering massive head injuries. She sued the Metropolitan Police after the officer at the wheel was cleared of careless driving.