Police have released footage of the moment a woman was shoulder-charged into the path of a bus in London.
The victim, who is her 60s, sustained grazes and bruising to her ankles, shins and knees, a cut to the top of her head and injuries to her shoulders after falling into the passenger doors of the bus in Pimlico.
The Metropolitan police also released a still image on Wednesday of the suspected attacker. The woman who shoved the victim was holding the hand of a child at the time of the incident, which occurred at around 12pm on 29 May last year.
Police said she had barged the victim moments earlier in a Tesco Express on Warwick Way, after a verbal exchange between the pair. The victim was uninjured and left the store.
While she waited at traffic lights on Vauxhall Bridge Road outside a Barclays bank branch, the same woman from the shop allegedly shoulder-barged her into the path of a bus. The video shows the suspect then walking off dragging a shopping trolley and holding a child’s hand.
DC Samantha Edwards said: “This was an unprovoked assault which could have had much more serious consequences. A number of inquiries have been undertaken to locate the person responsible.
“If you recognise this woman I would ask you to contact police immediately. It goes without saying that the victim has been deeply affected emotionally by this whole incident.”
The case has parallels with previous incidents in which pedestrians have been pushed in front of London traffic. In 2017, a jogger pushed a woman into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge. The bus driver was hailed as a hero after swerving to avoid the 33-year-old. The jogger became notorious after CCTV footage was released but he was never identified and the investigation was closed last year after police said all lines of inquiry had been exhausted.
In November last year, a man handed himself in after police published CCTV footage of a 57-year-old man apparently being shoved into the road on New Bridge Street, which leads to Blackfriars Bridge. A taxi managed to stop just in time to avoid hitting the man, who sustained grazes to his hands and arms.
