Train ‘smashes into van on crossing' sparking huge delays as fireball seen
The collision happened at a level crossing off Lower Road in Teynham this afternoon, with emergency services and an air ambulance currently at the scene.
National Rail said in a post on X: "A train hitting an obstruction on the line at Teynham is causing disruption to trains running between Newington and Faversham. Trains running between these stations may be delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:00."
TEYNHAM update: A London-bound train travelling at high speed reportedly hit a van on a level crossing off Lower Road this afternoon. The van reportedly caught fire following the collision. Air ambulance is at scene. pic.twitter.com/MINu4NAoVu
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
It's beyond time to end the scandal of IPP
It comes to something when a senior member of a recent government – the former justice secretary, no less – describes actions by the state that were part of his remit as 'overbearing, unfair and almost totalitarian'. Yet this is how Alex Chalk KC, who held that office for 14 months in the government of Rishi Sunak, describes imprisonment for public protection (IPP) orders – which can keep someone in prison indefinitely after conviction for a relatively minor crime. Ousted from government by his party's defeat at the last election, and also from his parliamentary seat, Mr Chalk has returned to his legal practice. It is from this perch that he is now asking his successor, Shabana Mahmood, to consider new proposals – from the Howard League and a former lord chief justice, Lord Thomas – with a view to righting this now longstanding wrong. At The Independent, we make no apology for returning once again to the iniquity of IPP orders that go against so much of what should constitute any civilised judicial system. Two features stand out. There is the glaring disproportionality in so many cases between the crime and the punishment, with some prisoners having served almost 20 years (and still counting) for offences such as robbing someone of their mobile phone or laptop. This is not, by the way, to diminish such crimes, but to point up the disparity between the standard tariff for such a conviction and the actual time served by many of those still subject to IPP orders. The other feature is the cruelty of imposing a sentence that has no end, which has been described by the UN as psychological torture. With no prospect of a release date, more than 90 such prisoners have taken their own lives. Altogether, more than 2,500 are still languishing in jail on IPPs. This is in spite of these indefinite prison terms having been abolished in 2012, just seven years after they were introduced. The clear mistake then was not to have made the abolition retrospective. It applied only to new convictions, not to those already in jail, leaving the glaring injustice that one day could make a difference between someone left to serve what could become a lifetime sentence and someone convicted of a similar crime with a clear idea of the timetable for release or parole. The failure to make abolition of IPP orders retrospective has had consequences of its own. At least some of those still not released are now so damaged by their experience and will be so hard to rehabilitate that they could indeed present a danger to society if they were released. This is the very opposite of what a penal system should set out to achieve and amounts, in Mr Chalk's words, to nothing less than a failure on the part of the state. At which point, there is an obvious and not unreasonable question for the former justice secretary to answer. If the injustices and perverse effects of IPP orders were so apparent when he came to office – as they were – why did he not do something about it? Why did he not condemn the policy in the same terms as he is doing now and make the changes he is demanding be made by his successor? Part of his answer is that he did do something. He reduced from 10 to three the number of years that a released IPP prisoner was on licence and so subject to recall. That is not nothing, but it was nothing like enough. Two small pleas might also be made on his behalf in mitigation. As he says, there was 'not a single vote' in even the change in the licence period that he made, because of the general lack of public sympathy for prisoners. As he does not say – but is a sentiment with which the current government could well concur – a year can be too short a time in UK politics when it comes to getting anything done. The ponderous nature of the legislative process can be a minus as well as a plus. On the other hand, the size of the Labour government's majority and the years it still has to run mean it has time on its side. After more than a decade of political foot-dragging around IPP orders, however, there is no time to lose. The proposals from the Howard League and Lord Thomas show how this could be done, and offer sufficient safeguards for the public in terms of conditions for those who may be released and a new drive to rehabilitate those still considered a danger to society. At a time when other prisoners are being released ahead of schedule to free up scarce cell space, and the Exchequer needs every penny of saving it can get, it makes no sense at all to keep IPP prisoners inside any longer than the public's safety requires. As Alex Chalk says of the one reform he did make, this may not win a single vote, but it would be the right thing to do. Indeed it is – and the sooner it is done, the better.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
London's no-go neighbourhoods: Pockets of the capital with highest knife crime offences revealed - as reports hit a another consecutive record high
Knife crime in London has hit a record-high for the second year in a row, official figures show. In response to the spiralling figures, campaigners slammed mayor Sir Sadiq Khan as 'not fit for purpose' and accused him of 'undermining the Met Police at any opportunity'. Former Met cop and knife crime campaigner Norman Brennan, who was 25 when he was stabbed in the chest and nearly murdered by a burglar while on duty, told MailOnline: 'Under Sadiq Khan, London has no-go areas and the streets have become unsafe.' Home Office data shows more than 16,800 knife crimes were recorded by the Metropolitan and City of London police forces last year, a 16 per cent rise on the previous record of over 14,500 a year earlier. The highest number of knife crimes occurred in several central London neighbourhoods, focused around the high-end areas of Mayfair, Fitzrovia, Soho, St James and the Strand. The most up-to-date figures are from 2023 as the Met stopped publishing data which breaks down weapons offences to this granular level of geographic detail early last year. MailOnline has asked if the force intends to start publishing this breakdown again. The number one area for crime was the neighbourhood – technically a 'lower layer super output area' (LSOA) named Westminster 013G – which features Regent Street, New Bond Street and a small section of Oxford Street. This Westminster suburb saw saw 141 reported knife crimes in 2023, according to Met Police data. A near-600 per cent rise on 2012, where 21 knife-related offences were recorded. You can see how impacted the areas of the capital you frequent are impacted by the rising epidemic with MailOnline's interactive map. Outside of central London, other hotspots include Shoreditch, Hackney, Stratford International Station and Westfield shopping centre and the centre of Croydon. Mr Brennan, who is campaigning for mandatory five-year sentences for knife possession, said the figures show 'the streets have become lawless'. He added: 'Many people think they can carry a knife and face no consequences. 'The courts offer derisory sentences. For carrying a knife you get the same sentence as a parking fine. 'That's how weak our criminal justice system is and all our criminal justice system does is make excuses.' Referencing the fatal stabbing of father-of-two Blue Stevens, 26, outside the £1,650-a-night 5-star Park Tower Hotel and Casino, he said that his family and loved ones will now see 'time freeze forever'. Police are still continuing their manhunt, and have been pursuing multiple lines of enquiry, including whether the murder was a botched Rolex watch robbery. Mr Stevens, who is the grandson of a champion boxer, had just been for a romantic dinner with his partner when the masked assailant struck. The murder came hours after the mayor promised a police blitz on crime in the capital, including tackling knife crime and robberies. Mr Brennan blames the rise in knife crime in the massive reduction of the stop and search powers in the last decade-and-a-half. PCs in London stopped four times fewer people in 2023 as they did in 2009 – from nearly 790,000 to 180,000 – in the same period, knife crime has risen around 40 per cent. However, Patrick Green, CEO of The Ben Kinsella Trust, said that while stop and search was an 'important police tactic and tool the police need to do their job effectively', it is 'not silver bullet often portrayed to be'. 'If stop and search was the answer we'd have solved the problem a long time ago,' he added. Mr Green said: 'It's very disappointing to see that knife crime is going in the wrong direction in the capital.' The trust he heads is named after Ben Kinsella, who was stabbed to death in a brutal attack in Islington in 2008. On the way home from a night out with his friends to celebrate their GCSEs, Ben was chased and murdered by a group of older teenagers, entirely unprovoked. Ben was the seventeenth teenager to be murdered that year. He was 16 years old. Mr Green added: 'Seventeen years after Ben's murder it's disappointing to see we've failed to address many of the key drivers that influence knife crime.' He blamed the availability of blades to youngsters, saying: 'It's never been easier for someone under the age of 18 to buy a knife, particularly online.' The campaigner added that knife crime has been 'glamourised and normalised', and that young people have become 'desensitised' to it because of social media. But he said that youngsters are 'terrified' of knives, with a recent survey showing 60 per cent were worried or anxious about the violent epidemic, and one-quarter think that carrying a knife is the best way to protect yourself. He also laid the blame at the gutting of police numbers by 20,000 under the coalition, as well as more than a billion pounds in youth service cuts since 2010, which allow criminals to fill the gaps left by a lack of positive role models. A knife-wielding attacker was caught on camera threatening a young girl in Gladstone park, north-west London at the end of June. The hooded perpetrator was filmed running up to the girl and lunging the large kitchen knife just inches away from her face. Last week, the Met told MailOnline: 'On Monday, 30 June at 22:03hrs police attended Gladstone Park, Brent, having been made aware of a video on social media of a woman with a knife. 'Officers saw no one who matched the description of the woman in the video. No one was injured, no weapons were found and no arrests were made.' A spokesman for the Mayor of London told MailOnline: 'Making London safer is the Mayor's top priority. The latest ONS statistics show that the rate of violent crime with injury in London is lower than in the rest of the country. Gun crime, burglary and knife crime with injury for under 25s have all fallen since Sadiq become Mayor. The number of homicides recorded in London last year was half the number recorded in 2003, and we had the lowest number of teenage homicides in the capital since 2012. Knife crime overall has also been falling over recent months. 'But there's clearly still much more to do to tackle crime. One death is one too many and the Mayor is determined to continue being both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. 'The previous government took a wrecking ball to policing budgets and youth clubs in London, which has had serious consequences. In contrast, the Mayor has doubled investment in policing from City Hall and created 500,000 positive opportunities to divert vulnerable young Londoners away from criminal gangs and crime and towards training and employment.' A Met Police spokesman told MailOnline: 'Tackling knife crime is at the heart of our determination to protect Londoners. 'Through stop-and-search and data-led policing, we are seeing results, with knife crime down this year compared to last. We have also seen an 18 per cent reduction in the number of victims injured by knives and sharp objects, and a 10 per cent reduction in personal robberies, including phone robbery, which makes up the largest proportion of knife crime.
BreakingNews.ie
4 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Pilots ‘waved to children before crashing into fireball' at airport near London, witness says
The pilots of a plane that crashed in a 'fireball' near London waved at children shortly before the collision, a witness has said. Police in England said they were alerted shortly before 4pm on Sunday to 'reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane' at London Southend Airport and that they remain on the scene of the 'serious incident'. Advertisement Images posted on social media show a plume of fire and black smoke coming up from the crash site. John Johnson, who was at the airport with his children and wife, said he saw a 'big fireball' after the plane crashed 'head first into the ground'. Mr Johnson, from Billericay in Essex, told the PA news agency: 'We all waved at the pilots, and they all waved back at us. 'The aircraft then turned 180 degrees to face its take-off, departure, powered up, rolled down the runway. Advertisement 'It took off and about three or four seconds after taking off, it started to bank heavily to its left, and then within a few seconds of that happening, it more or less inverted and crashed just head first into the ground. 'There was a big fireball. Obviously, everybody was in shock in terms of witnessing it. 'All the kids saw it and the families saw it. I phoned 999, reported it.' He added: 'I'd say that we're pretty shaken up. Advertisement 'I just feel sad for the people who were on the plane and, of course, their loved ones and their family, our thoughts are with them.' I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport. Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work. My thoughts are with everyone involved. 🙏🏽 — David Burton-Sampson MP (@DavidBSampson) July 13, 2025 As a precaution because of their proximity to the incident, police said they are evacuating the Rochford Hundred Golf Club and Westcliff Rugby Club. A bartender at the golf club, which is next door to the airport, said he felt a 'big heat wave' before looking up to a 'massive fireball' in the sky. James Philpott told the BBC: 'I was just basically in a hut like in the middle of the course and I didn't even see any plane go down or anything and I just felt like a big heat wave come through and I looked up and there was just a massive fireball basically 100 foot in the sky. Advertisement 'It was more the heat really just kind of hit me as I was sitting there, just like, feel like I'm baking.' He continued: 'I think everyone was just quite shocked to be honest. 'People were sort of running towards it to see if anyone was injured or anything.' Mr Philpott said he and others were collected from the course and taken back to the clubhouse where they remain now at a 'safe distance' with the club closed. Advertisement In a statement, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said: 'We were called to an incident involving a light aircraft at Southend Airport today at 3.58pm. 'Crews from Southend (two), Rayleigh Weir and Basildon (two), along with off road vehicles from Billericay and Chelmsford attended. 'We are continuing to work at the scene with our emergency services and aviation partners.' The East of England Ambulance Service said four ambulances, a rapid response vehicle, four hazardous area response team vehicles, three senior paramedic cars and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance have been sent to the incident. According to the airport's website, four flights scheduled to take off on Sunday afternoon have been cancelled. In a post on X, David Burton-Sampson, Labour MP for Southend West and Leigh, said: 'I am aware of an incident at Southend Airport. 'Please keep away and allow the emergency services to do their work. 'My thoughts are with everyone involved.' Matt Dent, Southend City Council's cabinet member for business, culture, music and tourism, said on X: 'I am aware of the live serious incident ongoing at London Southend Airport. 'At present all I know is that a small plane has crashed at the airport. My thoughts are with all those involved, and with the emergency services currently responding to the incident.' Essex Police said they remain on the scene alongside fire and ambulance services.
