By ELEANOR MANN
Published: | Updated:
Passengers waiting to board a ferry at the end of Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight were shocked to find a police car hanging through the pier railings today.
All FastCat ferries from the terminal were cancelled this morning as emergency services scrambled to the pierhead to help the hanging police vehicle.
The incident happened shortly before 10.10am on Tuesday morning, after the Hampshire Police Volvo collided with another vehicle while responding to an incident.
Miraculously, no one was reported to be injured.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said they had been carrying out 'urgent enquiries' in relation to an incident of indecent exposure in Wallace Court, Newport, when the crash happened along the 10mph pier road.
A 29-year-old man was later arrested on suspicion of exposure and is currently in police custody.
A police car was hanging precariously over the edge of a pier on the Isle of Wight after crashing into the railings just before 10.10am on Tuesday morning
Police had been carrying out enquiries regarding an incident of indecent exposure when they collided with another vehicle
Two police officers exited the vehicle with the help firefighters, before it was finally lifted free at around 3pm
The car had been left with its front end hanging mid-air over the sea after it ploughed through the railings on the seaside pier, which has a train line, a passenger walkway, and two-way system for vehicles.
The pier also is a ferry terminal for FastCat boats travelling between Ryde and Portsmouth Harbour.
One local told the Daily Mail of her surprise at seeing the police car hanging over the edge of the pier while driving along the road.
The 21-year-old said: 'I was driving along the road and all these fire trucks started flying past at around 11am.
'I get to the pier cafe to get a coffee and see a police car hanging off the pier, with a huge crowd and lots of trucks.
'Everywhere I went on the island for the rest of the day, people were talking about it. When I left the scene at around midday, the crowd was still there.'
A large crowd gathered as emergency services scrambled to the scene
Witnesses also described seeing a police officer who was sat in the front of the vehicle climb into the backseat to exit the car - as the front bonnet and driver and passenger seats were both entirely over the railings and left hanging above the sea following the crash.
Two police officers were freed from the trapped vehicle by firefighters, as ambulance, coastguard and other police officers rushed to the scene.
Experts were sent to assess the structural safety of the pier, before the vehicle was removed by heavy lifting gear at around 3pm.
Wightlink resumed the FastCat ferry service from 4.15pm, after about six hours of it being suspended.
Operations director Gavin Marshall said that no freshwater, sewage and power supplies running along the side of the pier that the car had been hanging over had been damaged.