Swept Away

This is the moment a car sunk in the River Thames after it was swept away by the tide in south-west London.

Student Ted Stones, 18, spotted the dark-coloured vehicle submerged in the river close to Putney Embankment at around 2pm on Wednesday.

According to witnesses, the car had been parked on a slipway before it was dragged into the river by the tide.

He said: "I couldn’t actually believe it was happening."

I can believe it. It nearly happened to me years ago. I parked on the slip road on the west bank of Richmond Bridge and went for a sneaky pint with my brother John and his mate Juan on the other side of the river. Half an hour later, as we walked back, we saw a crowd looking over the parapet and when we turned the corner realised that they were looking at our waterlogged ride and laughing. I ran down, up to me knees in water, opened the door, gunned the engine and escaped. The nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. I can remember to this day that the exhaust was already well submerged by the time I got the key in the ignition. Now - because of the video above - we know what would have happened if we had got back ten minutes later.