A man has suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a police car responding to an emergency call.

Witnesses described the scene as ‘pretty bad’ when a man, reported to be in his 40s, was struck while using a pedestrian crossing near the junction with Rockley Road on the south side of Shepherd’s Bush Green at around 11.20am today (Apr 10).

A London Air Ambulance landed on the green and escorted the victim to the major trauma centre at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.

Around 12 police cars and vans and 20 officers cordoned off the road and blocked all westbound traffic from the Holland Park roundabout except for buses. The road remained blocked off at 1.30pm.

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A Morrison’s shopping bag was left lying at the crossing, with apples strewn across the road. And a black Mercedes had also stopped at the scene.

A passerby said: “I was told a man was crossing the road and then the police car came shooting down. He went flying up in the air with all his shopping. It was unclear whose fault it was. It was pretty bad.”

It is unclear whether the police car had its lights and sirens on at the time of the incident.

A spokesman from Scotland Yard said: “The police van was on route to a call for assistance by police officers attending an emergency call. Enquiries are continuing to establish the full circumstances.”

A spokesman from the London Ambulance said: “We were called at around 11.20am this morning to reports of a road traffic collision near Shepherd’s Bush Green.

“We sent an ambulance crew, an ambulance officer and the London Air Ambulance to the scene. Our staff treated a man, reported to be in his 40s, for head and leg injuries. He was taken to St Mary’s hospital, a major trauma centre, as a priority by the ambulance and was escorted by the doctor from the London Air Ambulance.

“He is in a serious condition.”