The taxi driver who drove into a crowd of football fans in Moscow says he feared a mob lynching
- Footage has emerged of the taxi driver who crashed into a crowd of pedestrians in Moscow being chased from the scene.
- The driver said he fled the scene because he was worried onlookers would try and kill him.
- The man said he had been at the wheel for 20 hours before the collision.
The taxi driver who drove into pedestrians in Moscow yesterday said he fled because he feared the crowd would kill him.
The 28-year-old Kyrgyzstan national injured eight people, some Mexican football fans, after mounting a crowded pavement.
Shocking footage showed the driver colliding with pedestrians and then fleeing the scene as bypassers give chase and attempt to stop the driver.
Moscow police are now investigating the suspect who said he had been driving for 20 hours before the collision.
"I wanted to brake, I wanted to let someone through," the man said in an interview released by the police. "I switched off for a second and hit the accelerator... then I saw the people."
He goes on to say he ran from the scene because he feared the crowd of onlookers would try to kill him: "There were so many of them."
One witness is not convinced it was an accident, though. Viktoria Geranovich said, "I have the feeling that he did it deliberately because he was in the traffic jam with the cars going really slowly."
"How could he lose control of the wheel, push the gas and drive into the crowds?"
The incident occurred near the Red Square in the heart of Moscow.