FOOTAGE has emerged which appears to show a police van following two people on an electric bike moments before a fatal crash in Ely, Cardiff.
Two teenagers – named locally as 16-year-old Kyrees Sullivan and 15-year-old Harvey Evans – were killed in a collision on Snowden Road shortly before 6pm on Monday evening.
The local police and crime commissioner claimed that “rumours” of a police chase causing the incident led to “large scale disorder” between riot police and a crowd of people in the hours following the crash.
Alun Michael, the Police and Crime Commissioner of South Wales Police, told BBC Wales on Tuesday morning that rumours of police involvement in a chase spread on social media and got “out of hand”.
He added: “It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase, which wasn’t the case and I think it illustrates the speed with which rumours can run around with the activity that goes on social media nowadays, and that events can get out of hand.”
South Wales Police stated that the collision which killed the two boys “had already occurred when officers arrived”.
Yet BBC Verify – the corporation’s new service which aims to tackle disinformation – verified footage which appears to show a police van following two people on an electric bike minutes before the fatal crash.
The BBC states that the footage, which is time-stamped to 5:59pm on Monday, was taken on Frank Road in Ely – around 2953 feet away from the site of the crash.
Unrest following the incident lasted for several hours and resulted in at least two cars being set alight as around 100 people clashed with police.
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Chief Superintendent for South Wales Police, Martyn Stone, said that police are looking into the footage.
"We've received CCTV footage that shows a police vehicle following the bike, at just prior to 6pm," he said.
"This footage has been recovered as part of the investigation and will assist us in piecing together the circumstances."
However, he said that when the incident occurred "there were no police vehicles on Snowden Road".
He added that 15 police officers were injured in the riots, with 11 going to hospital for treatment.
The force has made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) "to ensure the matter receives independent scrutiny".
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