"The whole of the front of Ely fire station is closed off with blue crime scene tape. There are police numbers used to mark evidence all over the yard of the fire station. I counted twenty odd of the yellow markings with numbers of them," says former councillor Jacqui Gasson

Lynda Paterson, who lives on Cowbridge Road West, told the BBC that the scene outside her house was chaos.

"I was going to pick my children up from school and I could see there were police and someone was lying on the floor, on the pavement," she told the BBC

"I could see police running back and forth along the road and I now know there was a child... who had been hit.

"The police were running down because the ambulance hadn't come."

Any emergency admissions are being diverted to the Aneurin Bevan health board in Gwent until further notice.

Eyewitnesses described people crying and hugging in the streets in Ely.

Eyewitnesses reporting a woman in her twenties was knocked down along with her three children in the forecourt of the fire station on Cowbridge Road West in Ely. It is believed that she has died, and the children were injured.

Both the woman and the girl hit at the zebra crossing are believed to have been injured. An eyewitness said: "The girl had injured her ankle and blood on her face".

Hailie Jacobs, from Ely, told the BBC that the incident had left her scared.

"I noticed all the police and ambulance first. They'd taped off the road in various parts," she said.

"Some of it was absolutely manic and there was a paramedic working on someone on the ground.

"There were just loads of ambulances and police cars and even two helicopters above.

"It was all quite scary, we live near there and it's all places where I walk my children."

"It's scary, I've never been round anything like this before, " passers-by tell the BBC

The owner of Cardiff Reptile Centre told WalesOnline reporter Peter Law that he saw a couple with a baby in a pram being hit outside his shop. The baby was thrown four or five feet from the pram.

The baby's father was ok and was tending to the baby, while the reptile shop owner tended to the mum. The mum's leg was twisted and she was screaming out to her child.

Businesswoman Dr Elizabeth Haywood, who is also the wife of Peter Hain, was at Asda in Leckwith between 3.30pm and 4pm and witnessed the incidents

She added: "The next thing I heard was a scream and a thump.

“There was a woman who was in front of his van who was hitting the front of his bonnet because he had hit her. She then went under the wheels of his van.

“So we were all screaming ‘back-up, back-up’. There were a lot of people there.

“So he did back up and then he ran over her again.

The police press conference is due to start imminently at Cardiff Bay police station

Press conference may be delayed, reporters at Cardiff Bay police station say. It is expected to be in the next 20 minutes.

A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “The Welsh Ambulance Service has responded to a number of road traffic collisions in the Ely and Leckwith areas of Cardiff this afternoon.

“Eight emergency ambulances, five rapid response vehicles, four ambulance officers, two basics doctors and one Helimed attended several calls along Crossways Road, Cowbridge Road West, Grand Avenue, and Sloper Road.

“Twelve casualties, including adults and children, have been taken to the University Hospital of Wales with various injuries, some serious.


The A&E Dept at UHW has been closed to anything other than casualties related to these incidents. In the meantime, the ambulance service is liaising with hospitals in the region including The Royal Gwent and The Royal Glamorgan to convey emergency patients.”

Reverend Jan Gould, of the Church of the Resurrection, said the Ely community had been left "deeply shocked" by today's events.
"We have opened the church if anybody wants to come in," she said. "It's a deeply shocking incident and nothing I have ever remembered in my ministry is as traumatic as this."