Newly-emerged footage appears to show a police vehicle driving behind two people on an electric bike minutes before a fatal crash which sparked a riot in Cardiff.
South Wales Police indicated it will review the footage and has made a mandatory self-referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog after the events of Monday evening, but said there were no police vehicles on the road of the crash when it took place.
Two teenage boys – Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and his friend Harvey Evans, 15 – were killed in the crash in Ely, which police said was followed by “large-scale disorder” in which 15 officers were injured, with cars torched and fireworks set off.
South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael suggested on Tuesday morning that rumours of a police chase prior to the crash had become “rife” ahead of the unrest that followed, but said this “wasn’t the case”.
But CCTV footage published hours later by BBC Verify appeared to show a police van driving behind an electric bike on Frank Road in Ely, some 900m from the scene at 5:59pm, minutes before the crash.
In a press conference on Tuesday evening, South Wales Police said the footage would help the force to piece together events prior to the collision.
Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone said: “We’ve received CCTV footage which shows a police vehicle following a bike at just prior to 6pm. This footage is being recovered as part of the investigation and will assist us in piecing together the circumstances leading up to the collision.
“The families are being kept up to date. We can confirm that the following investigations have been carried out so far and when the collision occured, there were no police vehicles on Snowden Road. A police vehicle in Grand Avenue responded to the report of a collision, attended the area, and officers performed CPR.
“The investigation has involved the studying of CCTV and tracking data from the police vehicle. At this stage, we do not believe any other vehicles were involved.”
Claiming that 11 officers were hospitalised and four treated at the scene in the wake of Monday night’s disorder, Ch Supt Stone said local residents who were “understandably very frightened … have our assurances we will be doing our best to arrest all of those responsible”.
“A number of arrests have already been made and more will follow,” he added.
As the unrest unfolded, Kyrees’s mother Belinda took to social media to describe her heartbreak at being unable to reach her son’s body for hours due to the ongoing violence.
She wrote on Facebook shortly after midnight on Tuesday: “My son is still laying on the floor due to this riot I’m sat at home heartbroken there are 2 familys (sic) broken right now.
“I just want to see my son and I can’t because of this riot that have happened pls I beg you all to stop and let my son be moved to hospital so I can see him we need to see our sons.”
Jenny Samson, a relative of one of the victims, said the police’s behaviour was “disgusting”.
She told Sky News: “We were all at the scene and the police wouldn’t let the mums and dads come and see their own kids lying on the floor.
“They just kept saying, ‘We’ll let you know in a minute.’ It was disgusting how they treated them.”
A disabled woman, who also lives nearby, has said she was left “trapped” after rioters torched her car.
Jane Palmer watched from inside her home on Highmead Road as her Ford Focus was set alight. Her family tried to stop the fire using water from their garden hose.
“I’m disabled, so now I’m trapped without my car,” she said. “Why are they doing this? It’s just silly now.”