7 children, 2 adults hurt after car crashes into school in Wimbledon, not far from tennis tournament

LONDON (AP) — London police say seven children and two adults were injured Thursday when a car crashed into an elementary school on a very narrow road in Wimbledon, in southwest London.

The Metropolitan Police said the incident was not being treated as a possible extremist attack.

Police were called to The Study Preparatory School, a private all-girls school, at 9:54 a.m., along with paramedics in ground and air ambulances.

The driver of the vehicle, believed to be a Land Rover, stopped at the scene, the London police force said. No arrests were made.

“There are a number of people who are critically injured, as I understand it, and given the scale of the response from emergency services … this is a very serious incident,” said Stephen Hammond, Wimbledon’s representative in Parliament.

Hammond said the section of the school where the crash took place caters to younger children between the ages of 4 and 8.

The incident occurred about a mile away from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as it hosts the world-famous Wimbledon tennis tournament. Unlike the grand slam event, the school is located in a fairly remote area surrounded by local parks, horse trails and golf courses.

Police have extended a large cordon around the school and television pictures from overhead showed the car up against the wall of the building.

Dog walkers and passers-by were moved away from the scene as an air ambulance remained on the edge of Wimbledon Common, a large open space, while a number of ambulances parked nearby.

“Wimbledon is like a little village,” resident Julie Atwood said. “For this to happen in Wimbledon is unheard of. It’s terrible.”