Nightbus Crash

4 June 2014, 19:17 | Updated: 4 June 2014, 19:23

Police are trying to find the driver of a car after another crashed with a nightbus in east London, killing a man.

Police believe the two cars had been following each other closely when the crash happened in Clapton at 2.20am on Wednesday 4 June 2014.

The driver who died was named by police as Delano Moore, 25, from Chingford in east London. He was one of four men in a blue Audi A4 which crashed into the N38 bus.

He was pronounced dead at the scene while the three passengers were all seriously injured.

One was fighting for his life in hospital, while the other two men, aged in their 20s, were said to be in a serious but stable condition.

Paramedics also treated 10 people who were on the bus, which was travelling towards Whipps Cross when the accident happened in Lea Bridge Road, at the junction with Essex Wharf.

Those on the double decker who were hurt were described as "walking wounded" and were thought to have received minor injuries.

Police said they believed the car was "travelling with or closely behind" another vehicle along Lea Bridge Road.

They urged the driver of the second vehicle to come forward.

Reports claimed police were looking into suggestions that two cars were racing at high speed when the accident took place.

A Met Police spokeswoman said there was "no evidence" to suggest this was the case.

The wreckage of the blue car could be seen lying across the central reservation next to traffic lights close to the Lee Valley Ice Centre.

The N38, with the destination Walthamstow Central on the front, stood nearby, its right front corner crumpled and its left side angled into a grassy verge.

Rose Friggi, 32, a mother-of-two from nearby Paradise Park, said she had heard what sounded like an explosion at the time.

"I was up in the night because my baby was sick," she said.

"I heard what sounded like an explosion.

"My husband went to work at about 3am and he said there were police cars and a helicopter at the scene."

Mike Weston, Transport for London's (TfL) director of buses, said:"Our sympathies go out to the family and friends of the person who died after a car collided with a route N38 double deck bus at around 2.20am on Lea Bridge Road at the junction of Essex Wharf, Clapton, E5.

"The emergency services attended the scene.

"TfL, the bus operator (Arriva) and the police will now undertake a full investigation into this incident."

No one had been arrested in connection with the crash.