Seven Household Cavalry horses, including one soaked with blood, ran loose in central London after throwing their military riders during their morning exercise.
Five people, including a soldier who was riding on of the horses, were injured in three separate incidents during the six-mile rampage on Wednesday that lasted two hours.
Four people were hospitalised. It is understood that three of them are soldiers who have not sustained life-threatening injuries.
One Household Cavalry soldier was left ‘screaming in pain’ after he was thrown from his horse when it struck a car by the Clermont Hotel on Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria.
The horses were spooked during their daily morning exercise on Horse Guards Parade, in Whitehall, at around 8.40am.
One of the horses has also seemingly ran into a double-decker bus, smashing its windscreen, while another reportedly crashed into a black cab.
Emergency services rushed to the help the injured soldier, who was seen being treated on the road.
Bashir Aden, 48, a construction worker, told The Telegraph: ‘I saw a soldier falling down into the street after the horse ran into a car. One of my colleagues called the police.
‘The man hit the floor hard, he was screaming in pain. You could see blood all over the parked car.’
A silver Mercedes-Benz people carrier was also hit by another horse, with damage to its side and two rear windows broken.
Buckingham Palace Road was closed after the shocking incident and a cordon was put in place.
A blue tarpaulin tent has been put up around the injured soldier.
The horses ran through the streets of Victoria and got as far east as Aldwych before they were calmed and contained by police on the Highway near Limehouse.
Officers are now waiting for Army horseboxes to take the animals away.
A woman who saw the horse crash into the Mercedes told LBC: ‘One of the horses hit the Mercedes van and the rider was on it, fell back on this little middle bit of the road and the other woman lost control of her horse and she managed to grab the railings.
‘The horses were injured obviously from the glasses that they had broken. [The injured soldier] was laying there on the ground. He looked like he hurt himself pretty bad. It was terrible.’
