Glasgow mourns victims of lorry crash tragedy

Ten people, including driver, injured as tributes to victims pour in; first minister says tragedy left ‘city with a broken heart’

 Guardian News and Media

Glasgow

Five of the Glasgow lorry crash victims are female and one is male, police have said.

Ten people were injured in the tragedy, including the driver, and three members of the same family are feared to be among the dead.

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the city was waking up “with a broken heart”, as tributes poured in yesterday following Monday’s accident and residents struggled to come to terms with a second major tragedy in just over a year.

Police Scotland said: “Seven casualties were taken to hospital by the ambulance service, two walked in to hospital and one was treated at the scene. Four have since been discharged.

“There are currently six people in hospital being treated for their injuries. Two have been moved to the Intensive Therapy Unit for further monitoring.

“The deceased includes one male and five females.”

A formal identification process was carried out later.

The accident happened at 2.30pm on Monday in George Square, which was teeming with last-minute Christmas shoppers and visitors to the ice rink and amusements in the square.

Witnesses described a council bin lorry that had been travelling up Queen Street, which bounds the west side of George Square, mounting the pavement and scattering pedestrians “like pinballs”. It is thought that the driver may have fallen ill at the wheel.

The BBC reported that the driver had two passengers in the truck with him at the time of the crash. They are likely to be key witnesses in the police investigation. It is understood that the driver remained in hospital overnight.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland yesterday, Sturgeon said: “As the city wakes up this morning, the sheer sense of horror and grief at what happened will be very raw. All our thoughts, first and foremost, are with those who are waking up as bereaved families this morning. It is almost impossible to imagine what they are going through. I know that everyone across the city, across Scotland, across the UK, will be thinking of them today.

“I think all of us on our televisions were again struck by just how readily people run into a scene of potential danger to help those who have been injured, those who have been affected. There was a sense in the city on Monday night of everybody rallying around.” She added: “There is something quite incredible about the spirit in this city. Everybody knows it is a city with a big, big heart. This morning it is a city with a broken heart but it will get through this as it got through the Clutha tragedy.”

 In November 2013, 10 people lost their lives when a police helicopter crashed into the popular Clutha Vaults pub on the north bank of the river Clyde, not far from Monday’s carnage.